


The Human Form Divine

by bearpantaloons



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, F/F, Set in Modern Times, pretty much everyone is a greek god, there are hella people in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2019-09-06 12:21:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 37,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16832512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bearpantaloons/pseuds/bearpantaloons
Summary: Greek gods have lived among humans for centuries, but an impending war is on the horizon, threatening humans' very existence. With some help, Delphine will do everything she can to protect Cosima and the rest of humanity.





	1. Playing God

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo, here's a new (super ambitious) fic I've started and I'm actually really stoked about it. Thanks to Nat1996 for the suggestion. If you're not familiar with Greek mythology, it's okay. I've made a kind of cheat sheet for the gods I'll be referencing, but for the most part, they'll be called their Orphan Black character names. A few of them are genderbent, because it worked out better that way. YOLO, or something. Anywho, I'm having a ton of fun writing this one, so please let me know what you think! warm blood will be updated later this week if you’re reading that. 
> 
> Achelois (comfort and healing) – Shay  
> Adonis (beauty and desire) – Cal  
> Apate (goddess of deceit) - Gracie  
> Aphrodite (fertility, love, beauty) – Delphine  
> Artemis (huntress, wildlife) – Helena (daughter of Zeus)  
> Ares/Athena (warfare) – Paul/Beth (son and daughter of Zeus)  
> Apollo (music, poetry, art) – Felix (son of Zeus)  
> Castor/Polydeuces – Mark/Rudy (son of Zeus, demigods)  
> Deimos (dread, terror) – Ferdinand  
> Dionysus (winemaking/wine) – Alison  
> Eros/Cupid (sexual desire, attraction, love, procreation) – Krystal  
> Hades (Underworld) – Leekie  
> Hera (marriage and family) - Susan Duncan  
> Heracles (heroes, sports, athletes) – Art  
> Hermes (trickster, thieves, travelers, guide to Underworld) – Tony  
> Hestia (home and family) – Mrs. S  
> Nemesis (vengeance, divine retribution) - Sarah  
> Persephone (goddess of Underworld) – Rachel (daughter of Zeus)  
> Zeus – PT Westmorland

“Oh, come on, Scott. Greek gods are a bunch of incestuous, power-hungry, sex machines. All of their stories revolve around sex and how many children Zeus created.”

“I don’t know, Cosima, think about it. You’d be immortal, have powers, you could do anything you wanted.”

“Okay, but what if you became the god of something totally lame, like the god of dirty laundry?”

“There are worse things,” Scott says, laughing. It was the start of their school year; Cosima and Scott had been friends since high school and agreed to go to the same college, so they’d know at least one person. They walk to their next class together and sit down. Ancient Greek Mythology was an elective that they both chose, because it was in a good time slot and it was somewhat interesting to the both of them.

When the professor walks into the classroom, Cosima stops breathing. “Whoa,” she says under her breath. “Look, Scotty.”

Scott looks toward the front of the lecture hall and his mouth goes dry. “Wow.”

“Right?” Cosima replies, laughing. “This is going to be a very good semester.”

The professor sets her laptop on the desk and opens a Powerpoint presentation. The name Dr. Delphine Cormier is displayed in bold lettering across the screen. She waits for the last few students to sit down and introduces herself and the class. She hands out syllabi and instructs the students to read through it and that she will not be answering any questions that can be answered by reading the syllabus. By the end of the class, Cosima and Scott pack up their things and Cosima takes one last look at her professor and swears that Dr. Cormier smiles at her. Cosima and Scott split off to head to their next classes and agree to meet at the campus bookstore to buy their textbooks together.

Cosima hasn’t declared a major yet, so most of her classes are random things that she felt would be interesting. She was taking a class on oenology, or winemaking, archery, a history class, and an art class. Next up was the winemaking class. The number of students seems to be large, but Cosima just assumes everyone just wants to get drunk off of wine all semester. The professor walks in, wearing a wool cardigan and her hair in a ponytail with straight-as-an-arrow bangs dangling across her forehead. She introduces herself as Professor Alison Hendrix and has every class member introduce themselves and tell them something interesting about themselves. Cosima groans and wonders how many times she’s going to have to do this throughout her college career.

Her next class is archery and there are about a dozen students there with her. Their teacher hasn’t showed up ten minutes into class and some students have already left. A woman wearing camouflage walks up to them with wild, curly, blonde hair and scoffs at her small class size and looks at her class list. “People have no patience. You cannot excel at archery if you are not patient.” The woman is odd, but Cosima kind of likes her. After learning the basics of how to properly hold a bow without snapping her arm in half, Cosima heads to the bookstore to meet up with Scott.

She sees him standing outside waiting for her and they walk inside together, taking out their list of books they’ll need for the semester. Cosima walks up and down the rows and starts piling used textbooks into her arms. As she walks down the row where the Ancient Greek Mythology textbook should be, she nearly runs into the person in front of her.

“Oops, sorry, not looking where I was going,” she apologizes and looks up and her jaw goes slack. Standing in front of her is Dr. Cormier and she’s much taller than Cosima originally thought. “Oh, hi Dr. Cormier. I was just about to pick up your textbook. I’m Cosima.”

“You’re very efficient, Cosima. Here, take this one. It has minimal marks in the pages and no highlights.” She hands Cosima a book and smiles.

“Wow, thanks. Yeah, I hate when pages are filled with highlighted lines and the corners are folded. Uh, anyway, I should probably find my friend Scott and pay for these. I’m really looking forward to your class, Dr. Cormier.” 

“Looking forward to having you in class. See you on Wednesday.”

Cosima takes a few steps backward, keeping her eyes on her professor, bumps into another student, apologizes, and turns around to find Scott. She finds him down the math aisle.

“Scotty! You’ll never guess who I saw.”

“Kim Kardashian? Madonna? No, I got it, Sarah Stubbs.”

“What? No, you dork. I saw Dr. Cormier. She was checking out the textbooks for her class and she handed me one that was fairly clean. She’s so pretty,” Cosima says dreamily.

“Man, you’re so far gone already. We’re in college, Cosima. We’re supposed to go to parties and get laid with tons of women our own age. Like her,” Scott says, pointing to a girl with long, blonde hair. Cosima looks at the girl and thinks she’s cute, but Dr. Cormier is… a goddess.

“You’re right, Scott. I shouldn’t aim too high so early on.” She walks up to the other girl and introduces herself. “You’re in Mr. Dawkins’ Art History class, too?”

The girl looks at Cosima and smiles. “Yeah, I am. I’m Shay.”

“Cosima. Guess we’ll be seeing each other quite a bit this semester – well, at least Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

“Looks like it,” Shay says. “Hey, I got invited to a frat party tonight. You should come.” She takes a pen out of her purse and takes Cosima’s hand, writing some information down. “That’s the address and my phone number. Let me know if you’re coming.” She smiles once more at Cosima and turns on her heel, walking toward the cash registers.

Cosima walks back over to Scott and shows him her hand. “Scotty, my boy, we just got invited to our first frat party. Let’s pay for our books and go get ready.” They head to the registers and pay for the books, and split off to their respective dorms. Cosima’s roommate, Sarah, is a little eccentric and seems kind of moody, but they’ve gotten along so far. When she gets to her room, Sarah isn’t there, so she changes into something a little dressier than pants and a t-shirt. She sends a quick text to Shay, telling her that she’ll be there with a friend and Shay texts back with a thumbs up emoji.

After she’s done changing and fixing her hair and make-up, she heads over to Scott’s dorm and waits for him outside. Ten minutes later, he walks out the front doors and Tony is walking with him. “Hey, Cosima. I hope you don’t mind that I invited Tony to come with us.”

Cosima shrugs. “It’s not my party. The more the merrier. Let’s go.” It’s about a fifteen minute walk to the bustling frat house. When they ring the doorbell, a tall, muscular man with sandy blonde hair answers the door.

“What’s up, fish? Shay said you’d be coming. I’m Paul. Come in and make yourselves at home.”

“Fish?” Scott asks the other two.

“That’s what they call freshmen,” Tony says. They step across the threshold of the house and look around. The house is filled with other college students and most are surrounding a keg inside of the kitchen. The three of them head in there and are immediately handed red solo cups. Cosima spots her roommate standing in the corner with a tall man who looks like a lumberjack. She feels a tap on her shoulder and turns around.

“Hey, you made it,” Shay says, smiling.

“Yep, sure did,” Cosima answers. “This is my friend, Scott, and his roommate, Tony.”

“Nice to meet you guys. I’m Shay,” she says, shaking both of their hands. “May I borrow Cosima for a couple minutes? I have a couple people I want to introduce her to.” The boys nod and watch Shay and Cosima walk through the crowd.

“Well, let’s go find a game of beer pong, or something,” Tony suggests and they walk into a different room.

Outside of the frat house, Delphine, Alison, Helena, and two others stand, watching everyone drinking, talking, and basically being typical college students. They just watch, but don’t engage.

“Tell me again why we’re doing this,” Alison says.

“Because it’s fun,” the only man in the group says. “College kids are so easy.”

“Don’t tell me you’re into this, too, Beth,” Alison pleads. “Delphine, I can understand. She’s all about love and fertility, and I know Helena just likes to watch people falling over themselves.”

Beth, the other brunette with a hair pulled back into a tight bun, shrugs. “Someone has to make sure the rest of you don’t kill anyone.”

“For someone who loves wine and winemaking, you sure are dull, Alison,” the man says, chuckling. “I thought you’d be a little more laid back.”

“Excuse me, Felix. Wine isn’t all about getting drunk. It’s an art form, lots of trial and error until you get it just right. You of all people should appreciate that.”

Felix rolls his eyes until he sees Tony inside of the house, talking with Scott. “Pardon me, ladies. I believe I’ve found my mark.” He trots off, leaving the rest of them on the front lawn. Helena follows him to search for food.

Alison sighs. “Fine, let’s just get this over with.” She walks inside and the rest follow. It is, indeed, strange to have faculty appear at a frat party, but since it was the beginning of the semester, they were hoping no one would notice them. Cosima, however, has classes with all of them and when she sees them walk through the door, she raises her eyebrows and stops listening to whatever Shay was saying. 

“Uh, sorry to interrupt you, but is it normal for faculty members to attend frat parties?”

“What?” Shay asks, looking in the direction that Cosima is looking. “Oh, give me a break. Hang on.” She leaves Cosima’s side and walks up to the professors. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“What, you think you’re the only one who gets to have fun around here?” Beth sneers.

“I have a cover as a student. It’s not my fault all of you chose teachers. You need to go.” As Shay continues admonishing them, Delphine stops listening and looks over at Cosima, who is standing alone awkwardly, waiting for Shay to come back. She pushes through the others and weaves through groups of students to get to the brunette.

“We need to stop meeting like this, Cosima,” she says seductively.

Cosima nearly chokes on her beer when she sees Delphine and lowers it. “Dr. Cormier, what are you doing here? Shit, I’m underage. Please don’t tell anyone; I can’t afford to get expelled.”

Delphine laughs. “Relax, Cosima, I’m not here to tell on you. I came with some friends of mine. In any case, at least we can keep an eye on the rest of you and make sure you don’t get yourselves into trouble.”

“That’s really cool of you. This university must be pretty lax.”

"Delph— I mean, Doctor Cormier, what are you doing here?” Shay says as she walks up to the two of them.

“Hello, Shay. I was just talking with Cosima. She’s in my Ancient Greek Mythology class this semester.”

“Of course she is,” Shay says, gritting her teeth. “Excuse us, I was about to introduce her to some of my friends. Let’s go, Cosima.” Shay pulls Cosima away and Cosima looks back at Delphine apologetically. Alison and Beth walk up to Delphine and watch in amusement.

“Shay doesn’t stand a chance,” Beth says, sipping from a cup. “You’re cruel, Delphine.”

Delphine just shrugs and smiles. “It’s cute that she thinks she does, though. I’ll allow her to have some fun for a little while longer.”

Alison sips her beer and makes a disgusted face. She holds the cup up and looks at it as a wine glass materializes in its place. She takes a sip and smiles. “Much better.” The three of them observe the party for a little while longer before they move on and head back to their home. They live with Siobhan Sadler in a large house near campus and are basically one, big, dysfunctional family. Siobhan is making dinner when they walk in and Alison pours out glasses of wine for everyone while Beth and Delphine help with the food. After the table is set and the food is placed in the center, they all sit down. Siobhan notices the three empty chairs.

“Your sisters and brother are still out?” Siobhan asks.

Alison sips her wine. “Felix and Shay are out gallivanting with some mortals and Zeus knows where Helena ran off to. She’s probably out hunting tomorrow’s dinner.”

“And the rest of you? Didn’t you find anyone to play with?”

Beth snickers. “Delphine and Shay are fighting over the same mortal, but Shay doesn’t realize that she’s fighting above her weight class.” Delphine smirks and raises her glass.

“I really don’t think it’s a good idea to meddle with mortals the way you all are. They’re fragile. They don’t have the same… constitution that you all have,” Siobhan says.

“Oh, come on, Siobhan. We’re just having some fun. We won’t harm her,” Delphine argues.

“Well, just be careful. We don’t want to expose ourselves to the entire town just yet. You know how PT and Susan are.”

As everyone digs into their food, the front door swings wide open and Helena walks in with a deer carcass. No one knows where she found it, but they don’t ask. She takes it to the garage and butchers it, tossing the meat into their freezer. When she’s done, she joins the rest of the family and sits down to eat. Soon after, both Felix and Shay walk into the house, looking quite pleased with themselves.

“Nice of you to join us, chickens,” Siobhan says, somewhat sarcastically.

“Sorry, Mrs. S. Felix and I were—“

“Playing with your food,” Helena interrupts, chuckling to herself.

“Anyone promising this time?” Siobhan inquires.

“Well, I’m seeing Tony again tomorrow and Shay’s seeing Cosima in Felix’s art history class, so things are looking good so far.”

“Both of you are in my class? This should be interesting,” Felix says, quirking an eyebrow.

“No meddling, Felix,” Shay says, shooting him a glare.

Felix holds his hands up. “Have I ever meddled in your affairs before, Shay? Meddling is Delphine’s job, anyway. I just watch from afar and laugh when you all ultimately fail.”

“Cosima?” Siobhan asks. She shoots Felix a look. He gulps and looks down at his plate. “Is this Cosima Niehaus?”

Delphine raises her eyebrow. “Yes, why?”

Siobhan hesitates for a second. “She has powerful parents. I don’t want you two fighting over her anymore.”

Shay scoffs. “Powerful parents? We’re gods, Siobhan.”

“You will leave her be. Do you understand me?” Siobhan retorts.

Both Shay and Delphine nod silently, not really agreeing to let anything go. After they finish eating, they all clean up and excuse themselves. Delphine goes up to her room and calls her attendant, Krystal.

“Hey, hon! What’s up?” Krystal squeaks through the receiver.

“Krystal, Shay is encroaching on my territory again. Something needs to be done about it.”

“Say no more. I’m on it.”

Delphine hangs up. She’s grateful that she has Krystal to help her out. Many of her conquests would not have been possible without her. She knows it’s bordering on cheating, but she has a reputation to uphold. What would the others think if she couldn’t get people to love and admire her whenever she wished? And now that she’s found Cosima, she still wants her, Siobhan’s warning be damned. No one, not even Shay, will be able to stop her.


	2. God is a Woman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey folks, here’s the next chapter. It’s a bit of filler, but it will start picking up soon. I’m not sure what the posting schedule will be like this next week or so; I’m dealing with some personal stuff, but I’ll try to at least get the last chapter of _warm blood_ up for you this week.

Cosima’s alarm blares through her ears and she jerks herself awake. She reaches over to the nightstand to grab her glasses and puts them on her face. She looks over to Sarah’s bed and she sees her and the lumberjack from the party sleeping in the very, very tiny bed. She rolls out of bed and gathers fresh clothes and her toiletries and slinks off to the shared bathroom. The previous night’s events were written all over her tired face. So far, college has been a ton of fun and meeting Shay was definitely a highlight.

When she gets to her art history class with Felix, Shay is already waiting for her outside of the building. They walk inside together and find a couple of desks next to each other. When Felix throws open the doors, a hush falls on the room. He unwraps the scarf around his neck and removes his sunglasses. A stack of papers get removed from his briefcase and he tosses one on each desk.

“All right, read through this and let me know if you have any questions. If you don’t have any questions, take out the text you all should have purchased by now and open them up to the first chapter: Art from Ancient Greece. 

“Ancient Greece is following me,” Cosima whispers.

Shay chuckles. “You have no idea.”

The rest of the class is spent with Felix explaining the different types of art and depictions of gods and goddesses from that time period. When Cosima flips to the next page, she sees an image of a painting that catches her eye. The caption reads _Aphrodite_ _Rising_ _from_ _the_ _Sea_ and the image is of a woman standing in a scallop shell and the woman looks exactly like… no way. It can’t be possible. Cosima turns the page and sees a photograph of a statue of Aphrodite of Milos that’s in the Louvre and the face is exactly the same as the painting.

“This is unreal. Shay, check this out. Doesn’t this look exactly like Dr. Cormier?”

Shay looks over at Cosima’s book and frowns. “I guess.”

When class is over, Cosima says goodbye to Shay and they agree to meet up later for dinner. She heads to her Origins of Western Civilization: The Ancient Mediterranean World class, but she didn’t remember choosing that particular history class. When she gets there, Beth is at her desk already, always meticulously on time. Cosima takes her seat and a woman with blonde, styled hair and a killer manicure sits next to her.

“Hi! I’m Krystal,” she says, holding out her hand.

Cosima warily shakes it and introduces herself. She wouldn’t say that she had trouble finding friends, but she didn’t think college students would be this friendly. She wasn’t complaining, though.

“Have you heard anything about this professor? I’ve heard a lot of good things,” Krystal says, winking in Beth’s direction. Beth rolls her eyes and grabs her syllabi, handing them out to the students. Cosima realizes that every class she’s taking this semester is with someone who was at the frat party the night before. It has to be a coincidence.

After their class is over, Cosima stands up and grabs her bag. As she passes Krystal, she feels a hand in the crook of her elbow.

“Don’t forget your water, Cosima,” Krystal says, holding a bottle out to her.

“I didn’t have… oh, uh, thanks,” Cosima replies, taking the bottle. She leaves the room and Krystal immediately takes out her phone and calls Delphine.

“Hey, D, I gave Cosima the B.O.W. The Bottle of Wonder! Yeah, that’s what I call it. Anyway, the rest is up to you two. Okay, I’ll head there now. Bye!”

“Delphine has you doing her dirty work again?” Beth says, standing next to Krystal now.

“Aw, come on, Beth. It’s harmless. Besides, Shay got the last one, it’s Delphine’s turn.”

“I wish I had a friend as loyal as you,” Beth says, smiling.

“What about Art? Or Paul?”

Beth scoffs. “They’re both so busy pretending to be jocks in that fraternity that they forget who they really are. I wouldn’t trust them to carry a message home, much less plan a battle for war.”

“The war is really happening, huh?” Krystal asks, fidgeting with her jewelry.

“I don’t see a way around it. PT’s tired of mortals ruining everything they’ve been given. Anyway, that’s a ways off. We still have time to have fun. You’d better get back to Delphine.” Krystal nods and they both leave the classroom, going their separate ways.

* * *

Cosima has the rest of the day off, so she texts Scott to see what he’s up to. He and Tony were grabbing a bite to eat in the student union and they invite Cosima to meet them. On her way there, she crosses the quad and looks at all of the students reading, playing Ultimate Frisbee, or playing musical instruments. She isn’t watching where she’s going and walks straight into someone taller than her.

“Oh, shit! Sorry, I—,“ she looks up and sees the familiar golden curls. “Dr. Cormier? This is getting eerie.”

“I’m sorry, Cosima, I wasn’t watching where I was going. Where are you heading off to?”

“I was just walking toward the student union to meet a couple friends for lunch.”

Delphine spots the water bottle that Krystal handed Cosima. “Ah, I see. Well, let me walk you over there.”

“Uh, okay sure,” Cosima agrees.

Delphine flicks her wrist inconspicuously and Cosima’s throat goes dry instantly. She coughs to try and clear her throat, but it doesn’t work, so she takes the water bottle out and takes a long swig. Delphine watches out of the corner of her eye and smiles.

“So, Cosima, what’s your major?”

Cosima seals the bottle again. “I’m undeclared. I’m just kind of taking a bunch of random classes this semester to see if anything sticks. I was into science in high school, but I wasn’t sure that’s what I wanted to pursue, since there are so many different options.”

Delphine watches Cosima as she speaks. The way the brunette waves her hands in the air and the way she looks directly at her as she talks was intoxicating. She wanted more.

“I see. Well, you still have time to figure things out,” Delphine replies. “Here we are, the student union. Got you here safe and sound.”

Cosima stops in front of the door and turns to face Delphine, looking up into her eyes. “I, um, thanks, Dr. Cormier. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Of course, Cosima. Enjoy the rest of your day,” Delphine says as she turns to walk away. Cosima’s throat goes dry again and she drinks more from her bottle, letting out a long breath afterwards. She’s never been so thirsty in her life. She shakes the cobwebs from her head and walks into the student union, looking for Scott and Tony. She finds them in the cafeteria and grabs a seat at their table.

“Okay, guys, this is super weird. I keep running into Dr. Cormier – literally. I did again just before finding you guys and she walked with me here.”

“Teacher’s pet already, eh Specs?” Tony teases.

“Why am I Specs and Scott isn’t?” Cosima asks, ignoring Tony’s question.

“Because Scott is Roomie, or Mr. Scott,” Tony says matter-of-factly. Cosima gets up to find something to eat and settles on a veggie burrito. As she’s paying, she feels someone stalking up behind her.

“Hey, stranger,” the woman whispers in her ear, causing her tiny hairs to stand on end. Cosima turns to see who it is and is faced with Shay and her piercing blue eyes.

“Hey, Shay, fancy meeting you here. I was just grabbing some food with Scott and Tony. Care to join us?”

“I can’t, I have to head to class, but thanks. We still on for dinner?”

“Yeah, for sure. See you then.”

Shay places her hand gently on Cosima’s arm and gives it a little squeeze. As she watches Shay leave, she gets a strange wave of nausea in her stomach and she nearly retches. She looks down at her burrito and she’s completely lost her appetite. She sighs and walks back over to Scott and Tony. As she sits down, she sees the smirks on the guys’ faces.

“What?”

“You and Shay are getting pretty cozy.”

“We just met, I hardly know her. What about you, Tony? I saw you and Professor Dawkins getting up close and personal at the party.”

“Oh yeah, that. That was pretty insane. He’s an animal.”

“TMI, dude,” Cosima says, waving her hands in front of her.

Scott and Tony finish eating and Cosima wraps up her burrito to eat later. They head for the exit and Scott invites Cosima to come by their dorm later for a game of Runewars with him and a few other guys. She says she may show up, depending on what happens after dinner.

When Cosima gets back to her dorm room, Sarah isn’t there, so Cosima takes the opportunity to take a nap before she has to leave for dinner. She’s only asleep for about fifteen minutes when there’s a knock at her door. With a grunt, she gets out of bed and grabs her glasses, opening the door sleepily.

“Hi, doll! Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you had a copy of the syllabus for Dr. Cormier’s Ancient Greek Mythology class. I ended up switching some things around and we’re in the same class.

Cosima rubs her eyes. “Krystal, how did you know where my dorm was and how did you know I was in that class?”

“Oh! I’m a friend of Sarah’s and she mentioned it.”

“Right, sure. Let me find it.” Cosima opens her bag and rifles through her papers, pulling the syllabus out. “Here you go.”

“Thank you so much. I’ll make a copy and get it back to you tomorrow. I’m gonna go buy the textbook now.” As she’s about to leave, she notices something out of the corner of her eye. “Oh em gee. Is that coat from the 2013 line?” She walks over to the closet and rubs her hand down the sleeve of a red coat.

“I guess so. I’m not sure, it was a gift.”

“It is gorgeous, you should wear it tonight. Well, Cosima, thank you again. I’ll see you tomorrow. Toodles!”

Cosima watches Krystal rush out of her room like a hurricane and she lets out a deep breath. Krystal is definitely a character. Now that she’s awake again, she decides to just get ready head out to dinner early. She takes another look at her jacket and takes it off the hanger, throwing it around her shoulders. Outside, Krystal skips down the stairs and holds up a hand for a high five. Delphine stands there, unmoving, arms crossed in front of her chest.

“Is it done?”

“Done and dusted! Mission accomplished, boss.”

“Please don’t call me that.”

“Okay, la jefa! What are we doing next?”

Delphine groans and pinches the bridge of her nose. “We’re going to follow them on their little dinner date and just observe.”

The pair head out to the restaurant and spot Cosima and Shay greeting each other outside. They give each other a brief hug and right when Shay touches Cosima’s jacket, she recoils as if she’s been burned. Cosima looks at her with a confused look and they walk inside, with Delphine and Krystal following close behind them. They seat themselves in a booth near the back of the restaurant and watch the students sit down at a table.

Krystal holds the menu up right in front of her face and peeks out the side.  
“They’re talking,” she whispers.

“Yes, I’m aware, Krystal. Try to look a little less obvious.”

Krystal puts sunglasses and a hat on. Delphine just stares at her and wonders who she pissed off in order to get this attendant. They continue watching the pair eat their food and laughing at each other’s jokes. When Shay tries to place her hand on top of Cosima’s, the same thing that happened outside happens again and she recoils as if she’s been burned, and Cosima looks ill. Shay takes a look around the restaurant and spots Delphine and Krystal. She excuses herself to the restroom and makes a beeline to their booth.

“Are you serious?”

“Shh, we’re incognito,” Krystal says quietly.

“Is this how you want to play it, Delphine? Every time I touch her, I get burned? So be it,” Shay says, ignoring Krystal, who then tells her that whenever Shay touches her skin, Cosima feels nauseous. Shay glares at both of them and turns on her heel, walking back to her table, apologizing to Cosima.

Delphine smirks and calls Cosima’s waiter over. She whispers something into his ear and he nods, eyes glossed over and practically drooling over Delphine, while Krystal takes the wine bottle out of his other hand and pours it into her own glass. He walks back to the other table and pours some water into Shay’s lap as she shrieks and stands up, drenched. The waiter snaps out of his daze and apologizes profusely, trying to wipe Shay down with his towel. She slaps his hands and sends him away.

When they finish eating, Shay and Cosima walk outside and Delphine and Krystal follow them. Delphine walks up to the other two and smiles.

“We meet again. Oh, Shay, looks like you had a bit of an accident.”

Shay just glowers at her. Cosima looks up at Delphine and her gaze is different than it usually is; it’s slightly more intense. “Oh, hey, Dr. Cormier. It’s nice to see you again.”

Shay continues glaring at the other two, waves her hands around Cosima’s jacket sleeve, dispelling whatever Krystal had done, and starts pulling her away from them without the feeling of being burned.

“Sorry, we gotta go. See you later, Dr. Cormier.” She continues to drag Cosima down the street and the brunette doesn’t take her eyes off of Delphine, who grins triumphantly while they disappear into the crowd.

“Looks like she’s a smitten kitten, la jefa,” Krystal says.

Delphine nods at her attendant. “The plan is in motion. I just need to wait for her to come to me, which shouldn’t be difficult. She has my class tomorrow.”

Shay and Cosima head down the street, toward Shay’s apartment and the blonde is glowering. “You okay?” Cosima asks.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry. Something about Dr. Cormier rubs me the wrong way, that’s all.”

Cosima shrugs. “I don’t know, she seems cool.”

“Yeah, well, you don’t know her.”

“And you do?” Cosima is starting to get tired of Shay’s sour attitude. She has half a mind to leave Shay and just go back to her dorm.

Shay shakes her head slowly. “I’m sorry, you’re right. Let’s just forget about her. Do you want ice cream? There’s an awesome creamery just down this street.”

Cosima nods enthusiastically and they grab a couple of cones to go. When they get back to Shay’s apartment, she invites Cosima up.

“I kind of have an early morning,” Cosima reasons.

“Just one drink,” Shay offers. “We don’t need to do anything else.”

Cosima agrees and they head up together. Shay pours them a couple of drinks and they sit on her couch. Shay talks about her plans to major in holistic medicine and tells Cosima that she could give her a free session if she wanted - once she was licensed, that is. In the meantime, she would be able to give her free massages whenever she wanted. Cosima agrees and allows Shay to rub her shoulders. There’s some nausea, but not as much as before in the student union.

They finish their drinks and Cosima catches the bus home, telling Shay that she’ll see her in class on Thursday. When Cosima gets back to the dorm building and walks inside, she doesn’t notice the pair of blonde women sitting on a bench in front.

“How long are you going to pine over her, D?”

“I’m not pining, Krystal. Mortals are delicate. You can’t just walk up to them and take them to bed.”

“Well, I know a few mortals who would tend to disagree, but that’s probably because they’re boys. Seriously, though, why can’t you just stare into her eyes and make her fall in love with you like you normally do? Why go through all the trouble of dancing around her and Shay, sending me off with the B.O.W., which is very slow-acting and not one hundred percent accurate, might I add, and just get it over with? You’re a goddess for Zeus’s sake.”

She, she’s different, Krystal. I don’t want to frighten her.

“Oh, could this be love?”

“Well, you know goddesses take many lovers.”

Krystal giggles. “Especially you. The French façade all makes sense now.”

Delphine smirks. “Come. I still have some preparations to make before tomorrow’s class.” They stand up to head back to Siobhan’s house and don’t see the small form of a certain brunette watching them from her dorm room window.


	3. The God That Failed

Cosima’s alarm rings through her eardrums when Sarah throws a pillow at her and tells her to ‘turn that bloody thing off.’ Cosima reaches over and turns the alarm off, rolls out of bed, and heads to the bathroom. She gets dressed, fixes her hair and make-up as per usual and heads to Greek Mythology. She meets up with Scott and they walk to class together. When they get there, they take a seat near the front center and, a few minutes later, Krystal plops down beside her.

“I brought your syllabus back,” she says, taking the packet of papers out of her bag and handing it to Cosima. “Thanks again!”

“Yeah, no problem. Glad to have another friend in this class.”

Krystal beams at the mention of being a friend. She looks over at Scott. “And who is this hunk of a man?”

Cosima looks to her left and Scott is the only guy near her. “This is my friend, Scott.”

He gives Krystal a nervous wave and feels his face get hot. Delphine walks into the lecture hall and sets up her laptop, much like the first day of class. Once she’s all set up, she turns around, gives Krystal a discreet wink and a ghost of a smile crosses her lips when she sees Cosima.

“Okay, class, we’re going to go over Monday’s reading, which I’m sure every single one of you has done.” A few students chuckle, while Cosima takes out the text and her notebook. Delphine goes over Zeus, the god of thunder, how he married a million women and fathered roughly a billion children, give or take. Her voice is filled with something that sounds like disdain. One of his stories goes that he was so fed up with what mankind was doing in their generations of wickedness and greed that he wiped them all out with a great deluge, but humankind was eventually rebuilt out of stone.

“We will discuss Hera and get right into Zeus’s children on Friday, so please make sure you read up on those chapters.”

The students shuffle out of the room and Krystal tells Cosima that she’ll meet her in Beth’s history class. She walks up to Delphine, who stares ahead forlornly.

“Krystal, what exactly does your B.O.W. do? I thought it was working when we were at the restaurant, but Cosima barely batted an eye at me during class. She seemed more eager to learn. I am not used to someone resisting me so easily.”

“Well, the B.O.W. is more of a suggestion. I suggested you, so she definitely notices you. If you want, I can make something stronger.”

“No, that won’t be necessary. It’s no fun if they don’t have free will. I will just have to get creative.”

By the end of the day, everyone reconvenes at Siobhan’s house as they always do. Dinner is placed at the table and, surprisingly, everyone is on time.

“Well, it seems that since I finally have everyone here all at once, I might as well tell you all the news. PT wants to begin his cleanse by as early as next month. Now, I know some of you are fond of the mortals, so I’m not going to tell you what to do, but you also need to understand the consequences of not fighting with Olympus, not fighting with your father.” Siobhan studies the faces of her adopted children - almost all of them fathered by PT Westmorland and cast out. His current wife, Susan, was basically his right hand, but always had a soft spot for the children. When PT began training them all for the first great war, many did not want to fight. PT began getting more and more impatient and he was about to destroy all of his children who refused to fight when Susan sent them all down to the land of mortals instead, where they could live amongst the humans. Susan sent Siobhan down with them to keep an eye on everyone and become their mother figure, since she would not be able to leave PT’s side.

“What, so dear old dad doesn’t speak to us for centuries, but now that he needs something from us, he expects us to just drop everything and help him win his stupid war?” Felix scoffs. “No, thank you.”

“D, we can’t just let them kill all of the humans,” Krystal murmurs. Delphine shushes her and tells her to stay quiet.

“I’m guessing he wants Paul and me to draw up a battle strategy,” Beth surmises.

“You can’t seriously be thinking about helping him, Beth,” Alison says.

“Why not? It’s what I was born to do. I have no personal ties to humans like the rest of you.”

“But the humans are weak. They’re no match for PT and his lackeys. They’re going to be exterminated and you’re just going to watch it happen?” Alison argues, swirling a glass of wine in her hand. "Let Paul take care of it. Or, I know! Make it a competition. Paul comes up with a battle strategy for PT and Beth makes one up for the humans and whoever wants to fight for them.”

“Why would anyone want to fight for a losing team?” Paul asks, laughing and slapping Art’s shoulder. Art gives him a humorless laugh in return and looks at Beth longingly.

“All right, I’m game,” Beth says. “May the best war god win.”

Beth and Paul shake on it and they get started. Beth recruits Helena, Shay, Alison and Felix, who complains that they don’t know the first thing about warfare. Paul recruits Art and heads out to find more gods to join his side. Krystal looks at her friend and frowns.

“D, aren’t you fighting with Beth? Don’t you want to protect Cosima?”

Delphine shakes her head. “I will not get involved in this childish war. Just because I want one mortal, it doesn’t mean I want to save all of mankind.” She stands up to leave the house with Krystal trailing behind her. As if it’s like a reflex, Delphine heads straight for Cosima’s dorm building. When they get there, they see Cosima, Scott, and Tony walking across the pathway, dressed like they’re going out to a bar or a club.

“I hear this place is wild,” Tony says to the other two. “Today is all-ages, so they’ll let us in even if we’re not 21. We’re gonna have a blast.”

“Whatever you say, Tony,” Scott replies, unsure why he cancelled his D&D game for this.

From behind a row of bushes, Krystal takes one look at Scott and gasps, clutching onto Delphine’s arm. “Look, it’s Scott” she says, pointing at him.

Delphine looks wherever Krystal is pointing. “Who, Cosima’s friend?”

“Yeah. Isn’t he dreamy?” Krystal asks, watching him walk down the sidewalk.

Delphine watches her attendant fawn over the ordinary-looking man with great amusement. They continue following the human trio down the busy college town streets, which was still surprisingly busy for a Thursday night. Most students probably tried to schedule their classes, so they had Fridays off.

Meanwhile, Paul and Art were at the same club that Cosima and the gang were heading to. The very large bouncer let the two of them through the rope barrier quickly after recognizing them. They walk through a dark corridor to the back of the club and knock a specific pattern onto the door at the end. A panel in the door slides to the left and a pair of eyes are fixed on the two of them.

“Password,” a voice says.

Art rolls his eyes and says under his breath, “You can’t get me, thunder, ‘cause you’re just God’s farts.” The man behind the door snickers and pulls it open. Paul and Art walk through the doorway and head toward a long table, where a thin man is sitting with another blonde with a bob haircut.

“Paul, Art, to what do we owe the pleasure?” the thin man says, acknowledging them.

“Aldous,” Paul says. “Hello, Rachel.”

“Paul,” the blonde woman answers, curtly.

Paul and Art sit down at the table. “Well, as I’m sure you both know, the war is coming and we’re here to recruit you to our side. Aldous Leekie watches them carefully.

Rachel glowers. “Why would we get involved in your little war? We’re doing just fine here and the humans are making us rich.”

“But, if PT has his way and all of the humans are wiped out, you’ll want to be on his good side. What better way to do that than fight for him?”

“We aren’t fighters, Paul. We’re caretakers of the Underworld, which is why I named this club after it. We pick up the scraps and the corpses of the dead and take them to the depths below, so they can live out their eternity as my pets,” Leekie says.

“Well, don’t say we didn’t warn you. If you change your mind, you know where to find me.” Paul and Art stand up and head out the door. They take up a couple stools at the bar and order some drinks.

Cosima, Scott, and Tony finally get through the line and into the club, where the music is thumping through their bones. It’s dark, but they weave their way through the crowd to a somewhat empty area against a wall. Cosima grabs Scott and Tony’s hands, trying to drag them onto the dance floor. Tony agrees, but Scott refuses and says he’ll save their spots against the wall. While he watches Tony and Cosima sway and bob with each other, Krystal walks up to him and stands nearby. He glances at her in the corner of his eye and feels his palms get sweaty.

“Hi! Are you here alone?”

“M-me? No, I’m with those two,” he points to Cosima and Tony.

“Would you like to dance?” Krystal asks.

Scott laughs nervously. “Oh, I’m not very good.”

“That’s okay, I’ll teach you.” She grabs his hand and leads him onto the dance floor. Cosima and Tony see him and cheer him on. Krystal grabs him by the hips and tries to get him to loosen up, but it’s nearly impossible. A few minutes later, Rachel slithers through the crowd of students and stands next to Cosima and Tony.

“Good job, Tony,” she says. Tony’s smile fades and the color drains from his face. Rachel turns to face Cosima. “Welcome to the Underworld. My business partner and I noticed you coming in and were wondering if you’d like to join us in the VIP suite.”

Cosima raises an eyebrow. “VIP suite? Why me?”

“Let’s just say you have a certain air about you that we’re interested in exploring further. Come along.” Rachel walks toward the back room and the crowd appears to part itself as she walks through. Delphine appears next to Krystal and Scott, interrupting their dance.

“Krystal, where’s Cosima?

“Um, she was just here,” Krystal says, looking around. Tony walks up to the rest of them, with a worried look on his face.

“She went with Rachel. They went to the VIP suite in the back.”

“Rachel?” Delphine growls. “I gave you one job, Tony.”

“Sorry, man, she’s really scary.”

Delphine pushes her way through the crowd and heads toward the VIP suite. She doesn’t bother knocking and barges right in. She sees Cosima sitting on a couch with Leekie on one side and Rachel on the other.

“Get away from her,” Delphine roars.

“Now now, Delphine. You don’t want to cause a scene. Not here,” Leekie shoots her a warning. Cosima doesn’t move, but her eyes are wide and Rachel just smiles, venom ready to spout from her mouth at any given moment.

“Come with me, Cosima,” Delphine says, offering her hand. Still, Cosima doesn’t budge. Delphine takes a few steps forward and Rachel gets up from her spot and rushes at Delphine, pushing her back. Delphine’s feet dig into the concrete floor, causing deep crevices to form. She balls her fists and runs back at Rachel, throwing a punch, which causes the smaller woman to fly into the air and get knocked into the back wall. Rachel lifts her head and starts to cackle.

“You have no idea what you’ve just done,” she says. “All for this… pathetic mortal. She’s going to join us soon, you know.”

“What are you talking about?” Delphine asks demandingly. Leekie lifts his hand to silence Rachel from speaking further.

“Delphine, I really am disappointed. I always thought you and I had an understanding. Rachel is correct, though. Dear Cosima will become a permanent fixture within the Underworld in due time, so you should have your fun while you still can. Go on.” He waves his hand and Cosima jerks a little. She’s able to move and looks around, standing and rushing to Delphine’s side. A moment later, Tony and Krystal arrive in the suite. 

“Sorry we’re late, D,” Krystal says apologetically.

“Let’s go, Specs,” Tony says, ushering Cosima toward the door. Delphine glares at the Leekie and Rachel. Leekie raises his glass in Delphine’s direction and grins. With a huff, she turns around and follows the rest out the door. Krystal gathers Scott and everyone heads back to Siobhan’s house. They sit Cosima and Scott down at the family table and stand around them. Cosima looks around nervously and places her hands on top of the table, wondering why all of their professors live in the same house.

“So, um, is anyone going to explain what the fuck is going on?” Cosima asks.

“Unfortunately, you’re right in the middle of a war between gods and mortals.”

Cosima bursts into laughter. “Oh, come on. You expect me to believe that? I don’t know what kind of freaky cult this is, but I want no part in it.”

“Just hear them out,” Tony pleads.

Cosima scoffs. “You’re with them, too, Tony?”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake. Someone just show them,” Alison interjects. Tony shrugs and waves his hand in the air. A joint forms between his fingers and he wags his eyebrows.

“Check your pocket,” he says, grinning. Cosima does so and the joint she had in the tin in her pocket was no longer there.

“Okay, so you’re good at sleight of hand. That’s not that impressive,” Cosima contests, unconvinced.

Alison places two wine glasses in front of them and liquid coming from nowhere pours into them. Felix waves his arms around, takes the colors from objects all around the house, and jerks his hands toward a wall, creating a mural on one of the kitchen walls without touching it. Cosima quirks and eyebrow. “Okay, that’s kind of impressive,” she whispers to Scott. A minute later, Helena bursts through the door and fires arrows at Cosima and Scott, each landing centimeters from their ears and piercing the backs of their chairs.

“Helena!” Siobhan exclaims. “How many times do I have to tell you no weapons inside of the house?”

“Apologies,” Helena says and rips the arrows out of the chairs. “I thought they were intruders.”

“Helena, Cosima is in your class. She’s not an intruder,” Shay says, reminding her.

Helena squints and looks at Cosima, putting her head uncomfortably close and sniffing. “Oh, yes. I remember you.”

Siobhan sighs and shakes her head. She loves her children, but sometimes they’re a royal pain in her ass. “You two should stay here tonight. There are empty rooms upstairs. Tony, go show them. Felix, go find Sarah and Cal and bring them back.” Felix nods and leaves the house.

“Wait, before we go to our rooms in this strange house with a bunch of strangers, let me get this straight. All of you are gods and goddesses and there’s some war coming soon, and you’ve just been hanging out, surrounded by normal people, for centuries?”

“That’s the gist,” Krystal says. “Oh, also, Shay and Delphine have been fighting for your attention.”

“Krystal!” Delphine and Shay yell in unison.

“Oh, sorry, was that a secret? You two aren’t very subtle, you know.”

“What, like, a competition?” Cosima asks, looking between both women. Delphine looks at her apologetically and Shay doesn’t make eye contact. “Huh, okay. That explains why they’ve been so friendly. Okay, Tony, even though that’s obviously not your real name, I’m ready to go.” She stands up and Scott does as well. They follow Tony up the stairs and are set up in rooms next to each other.

“There are fresh towels in the closet just across the hallway and the bathroom is at the end of the hall. And, uh, I’m sorry for lying to you. We’re not supposed to tell mortals what we really are, for obvious reasons. For what it’s worth, I really did have fun hanging out with you guys. I’m Hermes, but you can still call me Tony. I, I kind of prefer it, actually.” He starts to leave and then turns around. “Oh, one more thing, classes are getting cancelled for the unforeseeable future. They’re disguising it as a teacher strike, so you guys can stay here as long as you’d like.”

Tony heads back downstairs and leaves the two of them alone. Cosima turns to face Scott. “Well, Scotty, I bet you never thought college would be this intense.” Scott chuckles and shakes his head. He goes to take a shower first and Cosima looks around the bedroom. There are paintings hanging on the wall, similar to the ones she saw in her art history book. She supposes that most of the figures in them are all gods and goddesses. A gentle knock comes from the door of the room that was left cracked open. Cosima turns to face it and Delphine is standing there, waiting.

“May I come in?” she asks.

Cosima shrugs and waves her in. She sits down on the bed, cross-legged, and Delphine cautiously joins her.

Delphine clears her throat and fidgets with her hands. “I just wanted to apologize for what happened before. Shay and I weren’t competing, per se, but it’s true that both of us are interested in you. Things kind of got out of hand.”

Cosima huffs out a tiny laugh, thinking back to all of the coincidences that occurred the past week. “I knew it. I knew that seeing you everywhere wasn’t sheer dumb luck. You were following me.”

“To keep an eye on you, to… to keep you safe.”

“Safe from what? People like you? I guess you aren’t even people, are you,” Cosima laughed sardonically.

The words cut deeper than Delphine expected them to. She always considered herself to have some humanity, especially since all of them have lived amongst humans and mortals for so long. Some gods even forgot who they were and lived life simply, without their powers and without contacting the other gods. Sarah was one of them. She’d denounced her godhood decades ago, saying that they all used their powers for selfish reasons and it wasn’t going to end well or give them purpose.

“I should have known two beautiful women fighting for my attention was too good to be true,” Cosima continues. “Let me guess, you’re Aphrodite.”

Delphine nods silently, worrying her bottom lip. She feels shame, which is a foreign feeling to her. Normally, she wouldn’t care what mortals thought of her, because there was always another to take their place, but with Cosima, it’s different. She wants Cosima’s approval; she wants her affection.

“I should get going. There’s a lot of planning that we need to do. If you need anything, feel free to ask me – or, anyone else,” Delphine says as she stands up to leave. As she approaches the door, she looks behind her shoulder again. “I’m sorry, Cosima. I really do like you.”

Cosima smiles half-heartedly. “Coming from the goddess of love and beauty, who could have anyone she wanted and probably has had anyone she’s ever wanted, it doesn’t feel all that genuine.”

Delphine faces forward and hangs her head as she leaves the room. She doesn’t understand why she feels this way. Maybe it was because no one had ever refused her advances so adamantly before. It just didn’t happened to her. If they did, she could usually just use her powers to get them to fall in love with her, but she didn’t want to do that with Cosima.

“You look like a puppy who just got yelled at for getting into the trash,” Shay says leaning on the banister.

“Not now, Shay,” Delphine replies.

Shay continues pushing her. “You know, I’ve never heard of the goddess of love and beauty ever getting shot down before. It must be a huge blow to your gigantic ego. How does it feel, Delphine?”

Delphine lets out a loud growl, grabs Shay by the neck, and pushes her into a wall, cracking it underneath the force. She squeezes hard, knowing that it won’t kill her. Shay just smirks and kicks Delphine away from her. They continue fighting, knocking things over and breaking furniture.

“Hey!” Siobhan yells, pulling Shay away from Delphine and Krystal holding Delphine back. “Go cool off, Delphine. Now.”

Delphine huffs and walks outside, slamming the door behind her, causing the entire house to shake. She sits on the front steps just as Felix arrives with Sarah thrashing around and Cal following close behind.

“Oi, what the hell? Where am I?” she demands.

Felix looks completely done. “Honestly, Sarah, it hasn’t been that long. Mrs. S will set you straight.”

“Who the bloody hell is Mrs. S? What are you looking at, blondie?” she directs her vitriol in Delphine’s direction.

“I see she hasn’t changed much,” Delphine notices.

Felix shrugs. “It appears not. What are you doing out here by yourself?”

Delphine shakes her head. “Shay and I had a little… disagreement.”

“Jesus, over the mortal? This isn’t like you, Delphine.”

“She has a name, Felix,” Delphine says through gritted teeth.

Felix sighs exasperatedly and waves a hand around noncommittally while he shoves Sarah through the front door, announcing their presence. “The prodigal daughter returns.”

After a few minutes more of her unofficial banishment from the house, Delphine walks back inside. Siobhan is sitting with Sarah, going through the motions of getting her to remember her godhood, but she was resisting. While everyone is distracted, Delphine walks back up the stairs and stands outside of Cosima’s bedroom. She has the urge to knock again, but hesitates. She shakes her head and remembers she’s the goddamn goddess of love and knocks. When there’s no answer, she calls out Cosima’s name. Still no answer. She knocks on Scott’s door and he opens it.

“Is Cosima in there with you?”

Scott shakes his head. “No, she said she was going to go to sleep.”

Delphine nods and quietly opens Cosima’s door just a crack to make sure she’s okay, but she’s not on the bed. She opens the door wider and flicks the light on. Cosima is nowhere to be found. The window of the room is broken wide open and there’s blood on Cosima’s pillow. Delphine notices a note on the nightstand.

_We warned you. The mortal is ours now._


	4. Gods & Monsters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, I want to thank [temporarytravesty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/temporarytravesty) for beta-ing this chapter (and all future chapters) for me.
> 
> Second, Merry Christmas/happy holidays to you all.

“You want to what?” Beth exclaims.

“I want to plan an attack on the Underworld to get Cosima back,” Delphine answers.

Beth stands in front of Delphine, dumbfounded. “You do realize that we have a major war on our doorstep, right? We don’t have time to rescue your little mortal pet.”

“Beth, _please_ ,” Delphine begs. Delphine never begs.

“Wow, I’ve never heard you beg before – outside of the bedroom, that is,” Beth teases. “This must be serious. Okay, fine, take Helena, Krystal, and Tony with you. I’ll meet you there in an hour.”

Delphine nods and thanks Beth. She searches around the house for Krystal and can’t find her. Luckily, she has a way to call her and snaps her fingers, being instantly transported to her attendant. She looks around and sees Krystal on a bed with Scott, kissing him passionately. Delphine clears her throat and Krystal lets out a high-pitched squeal and pushes herself away.

“D! I didn’t see you there. I, uh, what’s up?”

“I need your help, Krystal. Please come with me.” Krystal hops off of the bed and rushes out of the room. Delphine looks at Scott, his hair mussed and glasses crooked. She chuckles and gives him a wink.

Back on the ground floor, Delphine tells Helena and Tony to follow her to the Underworld and they do, without question. Tony was fond of Cosima wanted to make sure she was safe. Helena went, because she liked violence.

When they arrive at the club, Helena tosses the bouncer out of the way with ease and they walk through the doors. Inside, the club is completely empty and the lights are turned off, save for a dim light over the bar area. Delphine heads straight for the VIP suite and the rest follow. There aren’t any lights on in that room, either, and also no movement.

Something skitters across the club behind Krystal and she turns around a second too late. “Did you hear that?”

Helena looks at her. “I hear only you.” She presses her finger to her lips and continues walking forward.

The thing skitters across the club again and there’s a yelp. Delphine looks behind her. “Helena, where’s Krystal?” Helena looks over her shoulder and shrugs when she only sees darkness. The shadow zooms behind Delphine and someone yells, “Whoa!” When she turns around, Tony is gone. The lights flicker on and Leekie stands before them with Rachel next to him with Cosima. Krystal and Tony are bound and gagged and two identical twins stand near them.

“How precious. Aphrodite is here to rescue her mortal girlfriend,” Rachel says.

Leekie grins. “I’m sure you remember Castor and Polydeuces.”

“Actually, we prefer our human names. I’m Rudy and this is Mark.”

“Shut up,” Leekie snaps.

“Let them go, Aldous,” Delphine says, standing tall. Helena draws her bow and points it at his head.

Leekie begins to laugh, a low rumble at first, and then into a loud, boisterous, cackle. “And why would I do that?”

Delphine smirks. “Because we have the goddess of war.” A loud crash comes from the windows in front of the club. A parliament of owls flies through them and surrounds Leekie, Rachel, and the twins. They swat at the birds, but they’re too fast. Delphine and Helena race forward; Delphine picks up Cosima and Krystal, and carries them out under her arms. Helena grabs Tony and they all run out of the club. They hear Leekie scream at them as they make their escape. Beth pulls up in a car and tells everyone to jump in, which they do, and she speeds off.

Cosima is silent the whole way back. She doesn’t look at Delphine and hardly even moves an inch, whereas, Krystal won’t stop thanking Delphine for saving her from the creepy twins. Delphine isn’t listening to Krystal and just continues looking at Cosima worriedly.

When they get back to the house, everyone quickly exits the car and they walk through the front door. Helena parks herself on the recliner in the living room to keep watch. Beth and Tony tell everyone else what happened and Krystal jumps into Scott’s arms. Cosima walks straight upstairs without saying a word to anyone. Delphine notices and follows her to her room.

“Cosima,” Delphine says, gently.

Cosima whips her head around and glares at Delphine. “Just leave me alone.”

Delphine stops a couple feet away from Cosima and doesn’t move. “Please, Cosima, talk to me.”

Cosima stops in front of her room and turns to face Delphine, her hands balled into fists and her brow furrowed. “Talk about what, exactly? Talk about how I’m in some fantasy land full of gods and monsters, or how my professor tried to manipulate me to get into my pants? Or perhaps talk about Leekie telling me that I’m dying?”

Delphine breath hitches and she takes a step back. “What?”

“Yeah. Leekie told me that I’m dying. Apparently, I have this rare autoimmune disease. Pretty soon, I’m going to develop polyps on my uterus and lungs, I’m going to cough up blood, possibility of seizures, and eventually I’ll die. That’s why he was so certain that I belonged to him.” Cosima laughs humorlessly. “I just wanted to go to college and do all of the stupid things you see people doing in movies. I wanted to get drunk and high with my friends, find someone to break my heart, find someone else to mend it. And now? I’m going to die before I do any of that.”

“No,” Delphine says. “I’m not going to let that happen. I can help you.”

Cosima scoffs. “I think you’ve helped enough. Just go, Delphine. I want to be alone.”

Delphine stands in the doorway until Cosima’s fierce glare causes her to step backward until the door is shut in her face. She doesn’t understand what she did wrong. She saved Cosima’s life, and offered to save it again, but she was denied. No one denies the goddess of love, but this quirky, intelligent, animated mortal did. Delphine runs a hand through her hair and takes a deep breath. She walks back downstairs and sees Felix holding Sarah as she thrashes around the kitchen, trying to break free of his grasp.

“Calm down, Sarah,” Felix screams, while wrapping his arms tighter around her torso.

“No, let go, Fee! I was doing great without you lot. I had Cal, I had a life. And now you want me to fight in some bloody war that I don’t care about? Piss off.” 

Siobhan looks at her regretfully. “Shay, could you,” she asks the petite blonde. Shay nods and walks forward, placing a hands on Sarah’s temples. Sarah’s eyes close and her body goes limp. Felix carries her to the couch and lays her down. Siobhan turns toward Delphine and asks how Cosima is.

“She’s dying,” Delphine says quietly.

“Shite,” Felix says. “Are you going to tell her the truth?”

Delphine shakes her head. “I can’t, Felix. She wouldn’t want me to and she wants nothing to do with me now.” Krystal walks up next to Delphine and wraps her arms around the taller woman, hugging her tightly. Alison pours her a glass of wine and Scott looks up from the table.

“I could talk to her,” he says. “Maybe she’ll listen to me.”

Delphine smiles gratefully. “Thank you, Scott. Can you—can you also tell her that I’m sorry and that I didn’t mean for any of this to happen? And that I…” she looks over to Shay and feels embarrassed and guilty. “I do care about her.”

Scott nods and walks upstairs. He knocks gently on Cosima’s door.

“I said go away, Delphine,” the voice says from behind the door.

“It’s me,” Scott replies. The door opens and Cosima lets him in. She goes back to her bed and flops onto it face-first. Scott joins her and lies down next to her. “Weird situation we’re in huh? It would be cool if we weren’t on the brink of extinction.”

Cosima groans into her pillow. “Why couldn’t I just have a normal, boring, time at college?”

“Come on, Cos, you never do boring. Besides, you have two gorgeous goddesses fighting for you. That’s gotta be kind of encouraging.”

“Yeah, sure, if you don’t mind being tricked and messed with. How do I know any of it is real? You’ve read the myths. Gods are competitive assholes. This is probably just so one of them can have bragging rights. ‘I was the one who won over the stupid human. I win.’”

“Cosima,” Scott chides, “Delphine risked her safety and the safety of others to rescue you when Leekie took you. I heard her talking to Beth, begging her to help. She sounded… desperate. I don’t know about you, but I don’t hear about gods being desperate to save a mortal’s life very often. You should let them help you.”

Cosima shoves her face deeper into her pillow. She didn’t even want to entertain the possibility that Delphine’s intentions are genuine. She also didn’t want to entertain the possibility that her feelings for Delphine are real. It was just a spell that had been cast upon her. It had to be.

“Just talk to her. What’s the worst that could happen? I mean, yeah, she might zap you with lightning, or something, or you might get to sleep with a literal goddess,” Scott jokes.

“She isn’t Zeus,” Cosima replies. Scott looks at her strangely. “Delphine isn’t Zeus. She wouldn’t zap me with lightning. She might make it so I never fall in love with anyone ever again, or become barren, or something.” She stares at the ceiling for a moment, tracing the cracks of the old house. The room is too silent and Cosima cracks. “Ugh, fine, I’ll go talk to her.” Cosima shifts off of the bed and Scott gives her a goofy grin. She rolls her eyes. “Hey, just because you got roped into being a god’s plaything, it doesn’t mean I’m going to.”

She steels herself at her door before leaving and walks down the hall with purpose. When she walks further, she realizes she has no idea which room Delphine’s is, so she heads downstairs to see if anyone is there. Sarah is still passed out on the couch, but she notices Siobhan in the kitchen, making herself some tea.

“Hello, chicken,” she says as she steeps the teabag in her cup.

“Um, hi,” Cosima replies.

“Would you like some tea?” Siobhan asks while already reaching for another cup from the cupboard. Cosima nods politely and sits at the table. Siobhan walks over shortly after with two mugs in hand and sets one in front of Cosima.

“Thank you,” Cosima says gratefully. She bobs the tea bag inside of the mug, knowing it doesn’t make a difference in how quickly the tea steeps, but it’s a habit.

“How are you feeling?” Siobhan asks with a worried look. “You must be exhausted.”

Cosima shrugs. “I’m fine, I think, considering everything.”

Siobhan nods sagely, nursing her mug. She sighs. “I know this is all a lot to take in as a, a mortal, but we never meant you any harm. We’ve been here for centuries to try and live amongst you in harmony. But, that megalomaniac PT Westmorland – or, you know him as Zeus, I suppose – he thinks you’re squandering the gifts you’ve been given with all of the war and hunger and he doesn’t realize that those are the consequences of free will. He’s already eradicated mankind once before, so I don’t see how he thinks he can do any better a third time.

“In any case, I also wanted to talk to you about Delphine. I know she cares about you a great deal, as does Shay. It isn’t unusual for gods to fight over the same person, but the way they act around you is much different from what I’ve seen from both of them before. You aren’t just another conquest, if that’s what you’re concerned about.”

Cosima lets the words ruminate and she stays quiet. “Well, it’s not the only thing I’ve been concerned about. I was just told that I’m going to die, so, you know, that kinda puts a damper on things.”

“Well, we do have the power to pass on immortality if that’s something you’re interested in.”

Cosima’s eyes widen. “So, I’d become like you?”

“Well, you’d be a demigod, and I’m not certain you’d be bestowed with any powers, but there’s a chance, and you’d be immortal.”

Cosima shakes her head rapidly. That must be what Delphine was talking about when she offered to help. No, it was a terrible idea. Immortality – living forever when all of her friends and family died before she did. Her parents, Scott… “Thanks, but I don’t think I want to live forever. I’ll take my chances.”

“Okay, love, but the offer stands,” Siobhan replies, placing a sympathetic hand on top of Cosima’s. Delphine meanders into the kitchen and sees Siobhan and Cosima having their moment and excuses herself, apologizing for interrupting. “Nonsense,” the older woman says, “I was just about to leave. Here, sit.”

Delphine hesitantly walks toward the table, keeping her eyes on Cosima, making sure she wasn’t intruding, bracing herself and expecting to get yelled at again.

“Stop looking like at me like that,” Cosima admonishes her. “Come and sit.” Delphine does so and sits in the same seat that Siobhan was in, adjacent to Cosima.

She clears her throat, wishing she had some of Alison’s wine right about now. “Cosima, I—“

Cosima waves her hand to silence her. “No, look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken my anger and frustration out on you. It’s, um, I’ve got trust issues. So, you know, having two incredibly attractive women, who also happen to be immortal goddesses, show interest in me, I’m kind of, like, waiting for the other shoe to drop.” Delphine tilts her head at the unknown phrase and Cosima continues speaking. “I mean, I’m waiting to wake up and have someone tell me that it was all a dream, that none of it happened, that practically everyone I’ve met hasn’t been lying to me about who they really are, that I’m not going to die, and that no one actually wants me.”

Delphine grabs one of Cosima’s hands without thinking and squeezes it. “This isn’t a dream. Well, the parts with you and I aren’t, I mean,” she stutters and takes a deep breath. “What I am trying to say is that what I feel for you isn’t like anything I’ve ever felt for anyone else before – god or human. This is, this is different somehow. I don’t know why.”

“How do I know that isn’t just a line you’re trying to use to get into my pants?” Cosima smirks.

Delphine laughs. “I suppose you don’t. I will do anything I can to try and convince you, though.” She rubs her thumb over Cosima’s knuckles. When she sees Shay in the doorway, watching them, she pulls her hand away quickly and Cosima looks over her shoulder.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I was just getting some water,” Shay says apologetically. She grabs a glass of water and sits on the other side of Delphine, across from Cosima. “You know, I can tell there’s something between the two of you. I can feel it. I won’t stand in the way anymore.”

“Will the three of you just shag already?” Sarah groans from the couch. “I can feel the sexual tension oozing all the way over here and it’s making me nauseous.”

The women at the table look at each other and break into laughter.

“Well, hang on, I haven’t even been able to process my feelings,” Cosima replies.

“You don’t need to,” Shay says, smiling knowingly. “You already know.”

Sarah gags from the couch and Shay rolls her eyes, standing up. She squeezes Delphine’s shoulder before leaving the room and heading back to her bedroom.

“We should probably get some sleep, too,” Delphine suggests.

“Thank god,” Sarah mutters.

Cosima stands, as well, and ascends the stairs, waiting for Delphine at the top.

“We can continue this conversation later, if you’d like,” Delphine offers.

“Okay, sure. Maybe tomorrow,” Cosima nods. Delphine smiles and turns, walking down the hallway. Cosima waits a little while to see which door Delphine stops in front of before she heads to her own room. When she flicks on her light, she sees Scott still on her bed, fast asleep. She chuckles and turns the light back off, changes into a pair of shorts and a sleep shirt and climbs into bed next to her friend. He’s snoring like a diesel truck, but it’s surprisingly soothing and she falls asleep soon after.


	5. Twilight of the Thunder God

PT Westmoreland sits on his throne on Mount Olympus in the Ashbury Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California. It is adorned with golden trimming and jewels, his attendants fanning him and pouring him glass after glass of the finest wine. Susan Duncan sits in a chair next to him, looking incredibly bored. There is a knock at the large double doors of his throne room.

“Enter,” he says.

Rachel walks through the door, back straight, swaying her hips with vigor. “I’m sure you’ve heard there’s been an attack on the Underworld.”

PT sighs. “Yes, of course I’ve heard. I’ve also heard that you tried to kidnap a mortal.”

“That was Aldous’s doing. He wanted to keep a pet and show the defectors what the consequences of their actions are, and he thinks there’s more to this particular mortal than meets the eye.”

PT strokes his facial hair. “I see, and you find that fraternizing with mortals is a lucrative business? And, please, you know we use our godly names up here.”

Rachel’s mouth forms a straight line as she holds her tongue. “Yes, we do it as a necessary means for survival.”

“Well, I’m assuming you’re here for a reason, Persephone.”

Rachel twitches at the mention of her true name. It’s been so long since someone’s called her that. She clears her throat. “ _Hades_ and I want to fight for you, god of thunder. We have no love for _live_ mortals the way your other children do. Your brother asks that the Underworld is spared from any destruction. We have worked very hard for its success.”

“Your nightclub, as well as the dead who walk among you, will be spared of my wrath. Speak with Ares and await your instructions.”

Rachel nods and bows courteously, turning on her heel to leave. She hated groveling and pretending she was powerless in the presence of men, but it was necessary for her self-preservation. The attack on the Underworld was a reminder that she and Leekie were outmatched. Having even a few extra bodies to guard the place would be helpful.

PT turns toward Susan and flicks his hand around in circular motions. “Hera, be a dear and go check on your son.”

Susan nods, knowing he really means for her to spy on them. She stands, following Rachel out of the throne room. She walks toward the war room, where Paul would most likely be, and stands outside of the door. Rachel has already entered and finds the man in question, along with Art and a taller man with dark, curly hair and glasses.

“Rachel, so good to see you,” the tall man says.

“Ferdinand— oh, pardon me, Deimos.”

Ferdinand scoffs. “When PT isn’t present, we don’t care what names you use. The old man is stuck in his ways.”

“I still don’t see why you bother with him, Ferdinand. You either, Paul.”

“Well, the way I see it, he’s going to use this war to eradicate the humans. Once that’s done, he’s going to need gods to oversee his next creations. Someone, or something, will have to populate earth. That’s where we come in. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship,” Paul says with a wink.

“Job security,” Rachel adds.

“Precisely,” Paul answers. “Anyway, I suppose you’re here, because you and Leekie also need job security. I’ve been working on the plans; Art is doing surveillance on the Hestia house and the twins are wrangling the others who are still loyal to PT.”

“Sounds like you have everything under control. Just let us know when you need us. You know where to find me,” Rachel says, letting her gaze fall upon Ferdinand a little longer and turning her back to the men as she exits the room.

* * *

“Wait, wait. Tell me who’s who again? I forgot.”

“Siobhan is Hestia, the goddess of home and family, Shay is Achelois, the goddess of comfort and healing, Krystal is Eros, Helena is Artemis the huntress, Beth is Athena, Felix is Apollo, Alison is Dionysus, Cal is Adonis, Sarah is Nemesis, and you already know Tony and myself.

Cosima furrows her brow. “You’re going to have to tell me that again later.”

Delphine laughs. "Just keep your Ancient Greek Mythology text on you at all times and you can reference it yourself."

“But it’s so much easier just to ask you,” Cosima whines.

“Okay, ma chérie, I’ll remind you again later,” Delphine answers, smiling. 

Cosima blushes at the usage of a pet name, then furrows her brow in deep thought. “Okay, and Leekie is Hades and Rachel is Persephone?” Delphine nods. Cosima sighs exasperatedly. “I need flashcards.”

The both of them had continued their conversation from the night before. Cosima spent the last two hours asking Delphine every question she could come up with about gods and immortality and Delphine did her best to answer them. “ _So, like, since you can’t die, do you really need to eat and drink?” “We can still appreciate and enjoy good food and wine, Cosima. We are not vampires.”_ Krystal and Scott peek through the slightly ajar door and see Cosima and Delphine lying together on the bed, plenty of room between them. Krystal smiles at Scott and bounces excitedly before walking downstairs.

“I have another question,” Cosima says. “I hope you don’t get offended.”

Delphine hums and raises an eyebrow. “Okay, ask.”

“Before I do, let me just say that it’s totally flattering that you’re interested in me, because you could literally have anyone you wanted. That being said, why are you putting so much effort into me? I mean, you’ve had to go through a lot of trouble for me.”

Delphine sits up and looks down at Cosima. “It hasn’t been much trouble, honestly. And I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the competition with Shay or the challenge you posed. I have never been denied so fiercely by someone, but somehow, you were able to. So, yes, it may have made you more desirable, it’s not—“ she pauses, choosing her words carefully. “Most of the people I’ve been with have just been flings, temporary reprieves, nothing serious. I don’t want that with you. I want to be with you for, for a long time. However long we have.” Her head lowers after remembering that Cosima is sick and may not have much time left. She’d tried convincing Cosima to allow her to give her immortality once more, but again, Cosima said no.

“Do you remember when I told you that I had trust issues?” Cosima asks, staring up at the ceiling.

“Yes,” Delphine answers, leaning her head on one of her arms.

“Well, there was this girl. I was head over heels in love with her, and we were actually together for a long time, it felt like decades. She was… gorgeous, way out of my league. I thought things were going great. We spent a lot of time together, went out with friends, had mind-blowing sex, and then one day, one of my classes gets cancelled and I go home early and I find her in bed with a man. Then, I found out later on that they ended up getting married. It, it broke me, you know? I had been so certain that we were fine, that she loved me, but then she does something like that. So, when I think something is too good to be true, it usually is. That’s why I resisted your advances, because you’re too good to be true. How can someone like you want someone like me? I’m nothing. I’m mortal.”

Delphine takes her hand and cups Cosima’s cheek. “You are not nothing. I have been on this planet for centuries and I can honestly say that I have never met someone like you before. You are so unique, so special, and I will spend the next thousand years convincing you of that.”

Cosima chuckles. “Well, you’re probably going to be spending most of that time convincing a dead girl.”

“Why won’t you accept immortality, Cosima?”

Cosima turns to face Delphine, tracing a fingers across her clavicle. “I’m not, I’m not a god like you. I wasn’t born one. Everyone I know, everyone that I grew up with, is mortal. I would have to watch all of them die and I would still be here. Then what if, sometime in the future, you decide I’m not enough, or there’s someone prettier or more unique? I’ll be here, alone, for an eternity. That doesn’t sound like a very fulfilling way to spend my immortal life. And before you try to tell me that you won’t leave, or that you’ll be with me forever, don’t forget that I’ve read your entire history. Like, you and Ares? I know all about that.” She waggles her eyebrows.

Delphine snorts. “A lot of that is embellished, you know.”

Cosima rests her hand on Delphine’s chest, feeling it rise and fall with each breath. “Yeah, but there has to be some truth to it. I’m just saying that immortality has its own downfalls. It’s not as appealing is people make it out to be.”

“Neither is dying when you have so much life to live,” Delphine counters, resting her cheek on the top of Cosima’s head. 

Cosima shrugs. “I’ve lived enough.”

“Will you at least keep thinking about it?” Delphine pleads, her eyes start to water.

“Fine, fine, I’ll think about it, but it also might not matter soon, if all humans are eradicated. That’ll be a total bummer. I know humans are whiny pissbabies who destroy everything they touch, but total annihilation seems a little extreme.”

“You let us worry about that. In the meantime, you should get some rest. I can hear your breathing becoming more labored. Let me know if you need anything; I’ll be right downstairs.”

Cosima smiles lopsidedly and watches Delphine leave, shutting the door behind her. She lets out a deep breath and closes her eyes. Realistically, she knows that Delphine’s intentions are most likely sincere and that she does believe she wants to be with Cosima, but there’s that niggling feeling that convinces her that it’s all a lie. Delphine did mention the competition and challenge, after all. But… what if? What if an actual, living, goddess did want her? Even if it didn’t last forever, at least Cosima tick that off of her list. She chuckles to herself and sinks deeper into the bed, letting sleep take over.

* * *

“She still won’t budge on the immortality, huh?” Krystal asks.

Delphine shakes her head. “No, she believes that watching her loved ones die isn’t worth saving her own life. In a way, I can understand, but you and I will never fully comprehend how difficult that would be. We were born this way and we’ve been this way our entire existence. We have never had to consider our own mortality.”

“Well, I still say you should keep trying. If anything, you should at least woo her until she caves and throws herself into your arms.”

Delphine throws her head back and laughs. “So, just continue being persistent and annoying until she gives up?”

“It works for most people,” Scott adds with a shrug.

“I think I would rather she came to the conclusion that she has feelings for me herself, without any meddling or… caving.”

“She’ll probably kill me for telling you this, but she was enamored with you the first time she saw you in class.”

“Is that so?” Delphine asks, raising an eyebrow. She hadn’t even started actively pursuing Cosima then, didn’t use any powers or godly persuasion.

Scott nods. “Totally.”

Delphine feels slightly encouraged. She just has to be patient and let Cosima realize her feelings on her own. The only problem was, she didn’t have a lot of time. She excuses herself and walks upstairs and holds a fist up to one of the doors and waits. She clenches her jaw, swallows her pride, and knocks. The door swings open and Shay stands in front of her.

“Delphine, hi. What’s up?”

“Hello, Shay. I need your help – well, Cosima does. Her health is getting worse. Is there anything you can do?”

Shay sighs and crosses her arms over her chest. “Her illness is not like anything I’ve ever encountered. Even I can’t cure her. I may be able to stave off some of the symptoms for a while, but that’s about it.”

Delphine nods slowly. “Okay, can you try?”

Shay walks down the hallway and slowly opens the door to Cosima’s room. She walks in and Delphine follows. Cosima is fast asleep and Shay sits on the edge of the bed, placing both of her hands on Cosima’s back. She closes her eyes and concentrates, allowing her energy to flow through her arms to Cosima’s spine. When she’s finished, she does the same to Cosima’s chest, letting the energy flow into Cosima’s lungs. She gets up off of the bed and stands back.

“There, that’s all I can do for now.”

“Thank you, Shay,” Delphine says softly, swiping a tear from the corner of her eye.

“Huh, this _is_ serious. I’ve never seen you cry over anyone, like, ever.”

Delphine laughs despite herself and nods. “I don’t know what it is about her. She’s extraordinary.”

“I know what you mean,” Shay says. Delphine looks at her apologetically and the smaller blonde leaves the room.

Delphine pulls the armchair up to the bed and watches Cosima sleep, watches her breath flow through her nose, inflate her overworked lungs, and then get expelled through her mouth. She watches her curiously. How could this person hold so much power over her with such little effort? There was like this gravitational pull to Cosima’s orbit that Delphine couldn’t stay away from or escape. Her hands reached out across the bed, desperate to touch Cosima’s skin, but she resisted. She didn’t want to do anything that would make Cosima uncomfortable.

“Delphine?” Cosima croaks, still half asleep. “What are you doing in here?”

“I couldn’t stay away,” Delphine says, blushing. “I had Shay transfer some healing energy to you. I hope that’s okay. How do you feel?”

Cosima sits up and takes a couple deep breaths. “I can breathe a little easier and my chest isn’t on fire anymore.”

Delphine grins. “Good, that’s good. She can’t cure you, but she can ease the pain a little. Are you hungry? I can cook you something, or we can go out somewhere.”

Cosima chuckles. “Are you trying to wine and dine me?”

“Perhaps,” Delphine answers wryly.

Cosima rolls her eyes. “Okay, fine, we can go out, but I’m paying. Now, beat it, so I can change into something nicer,” she says, shooing Delphine out of the room.

Delphine heads downstairs and Siobhan is sitting in the living room with Sarah, deep in conversation. They look over at Delphine, who is sits down and giggles to herself.

“What’s going on?” Siobhan asks.

“I think Cosima and I are going out on a date. I’m not certain what it is, but we’re going out to get dinner.”

“It’s about bloody time,” Sarah quips.

“Have you decided to stay, Sarah?” Delphine asks.

Sarah sighs and runs a hand through her wavy hair. “It’s not like I’ve got much of a choice. Besides, I owe Mrs. S for some shit she got me out of a couple centuries ago.”

“Well, it is good to have you back,” Delphine says, patting her on the knee.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get all sappy on me.”

Footsteps rumble down the stairs and everyone looks over to see Cosima barreling down and hurling herself to the ground floor. “Ready?” she asks in Delphine’s direction. Delphine nods and stands up; she smiles at Siobhan and Sarah, and Cosima waves from the front door.

Siobhan chuckles and shakes her head. “They’re done for.”

Sarah scoffs. “Like lovesick puppies. It’s disgusting.”

Delphine opens the passenger side door, so Cosima can climb in. The brunette thanks her and Delphine closes the door and walks over to the driver’s side and enters.

“Can’t you guys just, like, teleport or fly everywhere?” Cosima asks with a curious glint in her eye.

Delphine laughs. “Not all of us have superpowers the way you think we do. Most of us have very boring and dull powers, like Alison makes wine.”

“Hey, Alison’s wine is delicious. It probably won’t win her any battles, but at least you can feel good while punching a guy’s lights out.”

Delphine smiles and continues driving. It feels nice to just be around Cosima, talking and forgetting that they were goddess and mortal. Tonight, they were just Delphine and Cosima. She drives them to an Italian restaurant a few miles away and finds a parking space nearby. They get out of the car and Delphine walks up to the maître d' and gives her name, looking him straight in the eye and asking for a corner booth and a bottle of their finest wine. His body begins to shake and he nods rapidly, showing them to their table.

“Did you just eye fuck him?” Cosima asks, incredulously.

Delphine simply smiles and gives her a tiny shrug. “I told you we all have our own powers.”

“Whoa,” Cosima breathes. “Amazing.”

They get seated in their booth and the maître d' backs away slowly, keeping his eyes trained on Delphine the entire way back to the front of the house. Cosima giggles to herself and another waiter walks up and offers them a sample of the wine before Delphine nods and accepts it. Cosima flips through the menu and looks at all of the different dishes available. She settles on eggplant parmesan before looking over to see which page Delphine is on.

“Have you already chosen?” the blonde asks.

Cosima nods. “Eggplant parmesan. How about you?”

“I think the mushroom and truffle risotto sounds good.”

Cosima hums. “Good choice.” The waiter comes by to take their orders and leaves hurriedly, not making eye contact with Delphine. She chuckles. “Are men just weak-minded and easier to manipulate, or am I just too stubborn?

Delphine laughs. “I’ve never used my powers of persuasion on you. Krystal, though, she had this... bottle of some sort and swears up and down that it’s like giving someone the power of suggestion. She called it a B.O.W.”

A lightbulb flips on in Cosima’s brain and things start making sense. “That explains why she kept making me drink water. If it was just a suggestion, I don’t think I really needed it, though. I already thought you were attractive.”

Delphine blushes. It’s confusing for her that Cosima makes her feel this way - smitten, she thinks it’s called. No one had ever elicited these feelings and emotions from her, ever. She’s lain with gods, kings, queens even, but this curious, quick-witted, extraordinarily ordinary person makes her heart beat faster, makes it so she can barely think. How is it that Cosima ended up having more power over Delphine?

“... and then Scott and I snuck into one of our teacher’s classrooms and totally sabotaged his mini biodome, because he was such an asshat.” Cosima had been prattling on about her practical jokes and tricks throughout her high school years while Delphine had been trying to figure out why this particular human made her go weak in the knees. She smiles and the brunette and just as Cosima looks as if she’s going to ask a question, their dinner comes.

“This smells so good,” Cosima says, inhaling the scent of her food. Delphine nods in agreement and they dig in. Cosima offers a bite of food to Delphine, who graciously accepts and she does the same with her risotto. They continue talking and discussing all of the different gods and goddesses. Cosima begs Delphine to give her some dirt on Rachel.

“Her story is actually kind of tragic. Leekie was enamored by her and wanted her to be his wife, so he abducted her and tricked her into eating a few pomegranate seeds, which tied her to the Underworld, so she would never fully be free of it. I think her hardened exterior is just a mask she puts on, because she has no other choice.”

“Leekie sounds like a dick,” Cosima says. Delphine chuckles and agrees.

“Most gods are, to be honest. When you’ve lived as long as we have and experienced what we have, you kind of forget what it means to be compassionate. It’s why so many of us wanted to live amongst humans, because it reminded us of our own humanity. We didn’t want to lose that part of ourselves.”

They finish eating and Cosima slinks down into the seat.

“Would you like dessert?” Delphine asks.

Cosima groans and rubs her stomach. “No. No more food. Wait, do gods ever get full, or do you get to eat everything you want?”

Delphine laughs. “Technically, we can eat whatever we want whenever we want, but most of us have trained ourselves to satiate our hunger enough to remember the feeling of being full.”

“Fascinating.”

Delphine slides out of the booth and holds out her hand for Cosima to take. “Come on, I have something else to show you.” Cosima takes the proffered hand and they walk back to Delphine’s car. They drive a few minutes until they begin passing familiar buildings. When the car’s parked, they get out and start walking across a grassy field, Cosima’s fingers interlocked with Delphine’s. They stop walking and Delphine looks up into the sky and Cosima joins her gaze.

“I come out here sometimes just to look around and think. It’s peaceful,” Delphine says.

Cosima points at a bright dot in the darkened sky. “Look, it’s you,” she says grinning, tongue poking out between her teeth. The planet Venus is shining brightly amongst the other constellation.

Delphine looks up and laughs. “Yes, it is. Wait, are you saying I’m as big as a planet?”

Cosima looks up at her. “No, I’m saying you’re as magnificent as an entire planet that’s covered in toxic gas that would kill me if I got too close.”

Delphine scoffs and turns to face Cosima. “Cosima, there’s something I want to tell you,” she says.

“Wait, hang on,” Cosima interrupts and runs over to a path off the concrete and plucks a dandelion from the grass. “Here, blow.” Delphine gives her a curious look and does as she’s told. Every seed on the stem gets blown into the night air and floats to the ground beneath them. Cosima smiles widely. “Supposedly, if you blow all of the seeds off in one breath, it means you’re loved. That’s what my parents told me, anyway.” She lifts the sleeve on her shirt and rubs her tattoo thoughtfully.

Delphine watches Cosima intently and tugs the corner of her lip between her teeth. She reaches to touch the dandelion tattoo that spans across the smaller woman’s forearm. “I think, maybe, both of us are loved,” the words flow over her lips with a hint of hope. Her eyes meet Cosima’s, who appears to be contemplating her words. She doesn’t make a move, knowing it has to be Cosima who makes the first one. “Cosima, I—,” Delphine tries again, after being interrupted the first time, but she still doesn’t get to finish her thought, because she’s thrown across the grass field with the great force.

“Delphine!” Cosima exclaims, running toward her.

Delphine holds a hand up. “Cosima, stop!”

As Cosima runs, she’s picked up by a creature and lifted up into the air. Talons dig into her arms and she screams. Cosima looks up at her captor and it has the face of a woman and the body of a bird. The creature screeches into the night sky and flies higher and higher.

Delphine slowly gets up, ready to fight whatever’s still out there.

“I’m sorry, did we interrupt something important?” the posh British accent cut through the air and Rachel stepped out of the shadows, followed by Rudy and Mark.

“Where did you take her?” Delphine asks demandingly.

“Now, Delphine. You don’t seem to be in any position to ask questions. Your mortal will be well taken care of.” She motions to the twins. “Hold her.”

Mark and Rudy walk up to Delphine and hold each of her arms. Rachel steps forward and smiles tight-lipped. “So, this is the mighty Aphrodite,” she says, tracing a finger down her jaw. You’ve gotten soft, complacent. It’s a pity. We could have used someone like you.”

“I would never fight for you,” Delphine spits. A smirk forms across her lips. “How does it feel to be Leekie’s pet? Does he at least scratch you behind the ear?”

Rachel snarls and slaps Delphine across the face, cutting her lip. She laughs wickedly. “Perhaps I should tell Aldous to kill Cosima first. She can be the first sacrifice in the name of Zeus’s great purge. Then you can visit her in the Underworld whenever you wish.”

“I never thought that you’d go crawling back to your father, Rachel. Groveling is beneath you.”

“I do what I need to in order to survive!” Rachel snaps, bringing her face inches away from Delphine’s. “Not all of us had the luxury of getting everything they wanted handed to them. Some of us had to fight to get where we are.” She takes a step back and composes herself.

“What should we do with her?” Mark asks.

Rachel turns her head to the side and smirks. “I think it’s time we try out Paul’s new weapon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, is it Westmoreland or Westmorland? Because I've seen it spelled both ways and now it's bugging me.


	6. Shattered God

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks, trying to get back on a regular posting schedule. Thanks again to temporarytravesty for reading over my mess of a fic and helping me make it clearer.

“Delphine?” Alison questions as she opens the front door to the house. “Hey, I need some help over here,” she yells to anyone nearby. Tony and Felix lift Delphine up and lay her across the couch.

“What happened?” Siobhan asks, rushing into the living room.

“I don’t know. I just found her unconscious in front of the house,” Alison answers. “Wasn’t she with Cosima?”

“Oh shite,” Felix whispers. “You think Leekie got to her?”

“Tony, go find Beth and Helena, and check out the Underworld, but be careful. Don’t be seen,” Siobhan instructs him. He nods and runs to the back of the house. She looks back to the unconscious woman on the couch and sighs. Krystal is kneeling down next to Delphine, patting her head with a damp washcloth with a worried look on her face, while Scott stands nearby and has a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Many hours later, after it’s gotten dark, Delphine shakes herself awake and bolts upright. “Cosima?” she calls out.

“Hey, D, relax,” Krystal says, getting up from the recliner to calm her friend.

“Where is she?” Delphine asks, eyes pleading.

“Tony, Helena, and Beth are out looking for her,” Scott adds.

Siobhan walks over and sits down on the coffee table across from Delphine. “What can you remember?”

Delphine sits up and wipes her hands across her face. “I took Cosima to the college campus, just to talk and walk around after dinner. Somehow, Rachel knew where we were and she was there with the twins and a, a harpy. Oh, Cosima,” she breathes. “The harpy took her. I have to go find her,” Delphine says as she tries to stand, her footing unsure. Krystal holds onto her, but she can barely move and she sits back down. “What… what’s wrong with me? Something isn’t right.” She stands and looks into Scott’s eyes. “Kiss me.”

“Uh, what?” Scott stammers.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Krystal demands, pushing Scott behind her.

Delphine collapses back onto the couch and stares down at her hands. “I have no powers. The twins had this device and they used it on me. All I could feel was this burning pain and I passed out and now… am I mortal?” She feels emotions she’s never felt before: fear, panic, despair. “What’s happening to me?” Her breath falters and she starts breathing erratically, tears falling down her cheeks.

“We’ll figure it out, D. Don’t worry,” Krystal says, trying to calm Delphine.

“What’s going on?” Shay asks from the bottom of the stairs.

“The Underworld has a device that can remove our powers,” Sarah comments from the kitchen, overhearing everything that’s happened. “Oh, and Cosima’s missing.”

“What? What do you mean she’s missing?”

Shay walks over to Delphine and takes her hands in her own and closes her eyes. A few moments later, she opens her eyes again and shakes her head. “This isn’t an ailment I can cure. It’s something else, almost like she was born mortal, like she was never a goddess.”

Everyone looks at each other, not quite sure what to say. Delphine finally stands and heads toward the front door.

“I can’t just sit here and do nothing. I need to find Cosima.”

Felix grabs her by the shoulders and maneuvers her back into the living room. “Darling, you aren’t going anywhere. Let Beth and the others look for her.”

Delphine slumps back onto the couch and sighs, clearly frustrated. Scott and Krystal do their best to keep her distracted, but it’s no use. All she can think about is Cosima and how she’d failed to protect her. She stands again and paces around the house, impatiently waiting for Beth and company to come back. When the door opens, Delphine rushes to greet them. Beth has a dire look on her face and Tony and Helena also look concerned.

“The place is preparing for war,” Tony says. “They’ve got harpies scouting in the air and Leekie set up his three-headed pooch out front. We couldn’t get inside.”

“We’re going to need help,” Beth sighs as she sits at the table. Alison’s pours her some wine and squeezes her shoulder.

“We should get horse men and horses with wings. Many horses,” Helena suggests.

 **“** She’s right, we’ll need to outsource just like the Underworld has **,** ” Siobhan agrees. “Leave that to me; I still have some contacts in Olympus.”

Delphine cradles her head in her hands and rests her elbows on her knees. She hates feeling so useless, especially when Cosima needs her. Krystal pats her knee consolingly and reassures her that they’ll find Cosima, but Delphine knows how Rachel and Leekie work. They’re trying to bait them and Delphine foolishly got everyone else involved because of her adoration for Cosima. She sighs and stands up, walking toward her room. Krystal and Scott look at each other, not knowing what to do or say to help. Delphine shuts the door to her room and lies down on the bed. She reflects on all of the feelings that are so foreign to her – fear, sadness, and… was that hunger? She groans and rolls onto her side, but before long, she’s standing up again and opening her window. She climbs out and starts heading into town, determined to save Cosima herself.

* * *

Back at the Underworld, Cosima sits inside a small room full of boxes and shelves. It looks like a storage room. The door’s been locked and she’s already tried banging on it and yelling for over an hour and no one came. After she’d fallen asleep on the cold floor, the door creaks open and the click of Rachel’s heels echo throughout the room.

“Apologies for the accommodations. We’re not exactly suited for guests,” she smiles wryly. Cosima doesn’t say anything, just glares at her captor. Then a sense of dread washes over her as she remembers seeing Delphine curled up on the ground with those men huddled over her and she could remember the scream that came next.

“What did you do to Delphine?”

“Don’t worry, she’s still alive… for now. You see, the funny thing about mortality is that it’s so fragile and unpredictable. I’m sure you’ve become acutely aware of it since Aldous informed you of your illness.” The stony-faced candor that exudes from Rachel makes Cosima want to slap her so hard that her bob haircut swings all the way around her head.

A commotion coming from inside of the club interrupts them and Rachel leaves in a hurry, locking the door behind her once more. Cosima presses her ear up to the door and she can hear muffled voices, but can’t make anything out. One of the voices starts getting closer and clearer, and Cosima can hear it say, “This is perfect, actually. Let’s conduct a little experiment, shall we?” The door opens once more and Cosima takes a few steps back. Leekie walks in with a devilish look on his face.

“Ms. Niehaus, will you please follow me?” He gestures toward the door and Cosima walks past him out into the hallway. The lights are dim and she can see four other figures in the middle of the club dance floor. Mark and Rudy are holding onto someone and as she gets closer, she sees it’s Delphine. Her mouth is bloody and she’s hunched over.

“Look who we found,” Rudy grins menacingly. “Not so tough now, is she.”

“Delphine?” Cosima gasps. “What did you do to her?”

“She wants to be with a mortal so badly, we turned her into one,” Rachel says, making a disgusted face. “Pathetic.”

Leekie takes a gun out from the back of his pants and points it directly at Delphine. “Ah, but Cosima is no ordinary mortal, is she? Save her, Asclepius.” He pulls the trigger and Delphine cries out and drops to the ground. She holds her hands to her side as blood spills out of her. Cosima cries out and bolts to her side, pressing her hands on top of Delphine’s.

“No! Oh, god, this is all my fault. I’m so sorry, Delphine.”

Delphine lies on her back and raises a bloody hand to cup Cosima’s cheek, smiling slightly and whispering, “Je t’aime, Cosima. I always have,” before her eyes become glossy and her hand falls to her side. Cosima shakes her head rapidly and feels for a pulse, but there is none.

“No… no, no, no,” she whimpers. “Delphine?” Turning to Leekie, she exclaims, “You killed her!”

Leekie shrugs. “Then save her.”

“What do you mean ‘save her’?” Cosima exclaims, tears streaming down her face. Her head hangs low into her chest as she stares at Delphine’s lifeless body.

“She still doesn’t remember,” Rachel says in a mocking tone. “I told you this would be a waste of time.”

“You don’t have much time, Cosima,” Leekie says, ignoring Rachel. “Delphine will become a permanent resident of the Underworld in 24 hours.”

“I don’t know what you expect me to do,” Cosima sobs.

“Think,” Leekie replies. “You are Asclepius, goddess of medicine and healing. You bring people back to life. PT was going to kill you, because you kept saving mortal lives. I was the one who asked for it, because you were keeping the dead from coming to my club, but now that Zeus wants to destroy all human life, I suppose it no longer matters anymore, since I’ll have more than enough after the purge.”

The sound that comes from Cosima was unlike any they’d ever heard. It’s a mixture between a roar and a bellow and it echoes through the entire club. A flash of light glows in the center of the room and there’s a loud boom, throwing everyone but Cosima and Delphine’s body across the floor. Cosima’s eyes and fingertips then begin to glow and she looks down at Delphine’s lifeless form once more, placing her hands over the bullet hole in her abdomen. She can feel the bullet and all of the shards slowly being pulled out and once everything is out, she tosses it to the ground. Her hands remain over the wound and she can tell the organs and tissue are healing themselves and blood and oxygen are flowing once more.

Delphine takes a deep breath and gasps for air, her chest heaving and her eyes popping wide open. She looks up and sees Cosima sitting over her with her lopsided grin, but she looks different.

“Come on, let’s get you out of here,” the brunette says, helping Delphine to her feet. Cosima waves her hand and the doors to the club swing open. Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding the entrance, takes one look at Cosima and whimpers and bows his head, letting them through. They make it back to Siobhan’s house and Cosima opens the front door, holding Delphine up beside her. Krystal sees them first and rushes over, throwing Delphine’s other arm around her own shoulders.

“What happened?” Krystal asks, walking over from the kitchen.

“A lot. I’ll explain it later; I’m exhausted.”

“Okay, love. Krystal, help Cosima take Delphine to her bedroom,” Siobhan says, waving Krystal over.

Krystal nods and they ascend the stairs together. They lie Delphine on the bed and Cosima covers her with a blanket.

“Is she okay?” Krystal asks.

Cosima shakes her head and shrugs. “I think so. Holy shit, Krystal, so much happened tonight and I don’t even know what to make of it. I, I don’t think I’m mortal anymore.”

Krystal furrowed her brow and tilted her head to the side. “Not mortal? Do you… “

“I brought her back to life. Delphine was dead and I brought her back to life. I don’t even know how I did it. It just kind of happened.”

“Holy cannoli,” Krystal whispers. “Okay, well, you should get some rest. I’ll go tell everyone that you two are okay and we’ll have a meeting in the morning.” She gathers Cosima up into a tight hug and Cosima awkwardly pats her on the back before she leaves the room. Cosima turns around to look at Delphine once more; her eyes are closed, but her forehead is wrinkled and doesn’t look at all peaceful. As she’s about to leave, she hears her name being called.

“Delphine? You’re awake?”

“You saved me,” she whispers. Cosima nods. “And I’m… mortal.”

“Yeah, I’m really sorry.”

Delphine shakes her head dismissively. “If it means your illness is gone, it doesn’t matter what happens to me.”

“How do you do that? How do you keep putting everyone else before you?”

Delphine scoffs. “If I did that, you wouldn’t have gotten involved in any of this. You could have lived your life blissfully ignorant as a human.”

“Okay, but why did you keep offering to make me immortal if I already was?” Cosima asks, wrinkling her forehead.

“I wasn’t offering immortality, really. I was offering to remind you of who you are, reminding you of your godhood. You’d made everyone promise not to ever tell you.”

“But I don’t understand,” Cosima says, now sitting on the edge of the bed. “I don’t remember being a god. I remember my family – my _human_ family. I remember my childhood and my first kiss. I remember graduating high school. How is it possible that I remember all of that?”

“I don’t know. It’s possible that you were so deep in your human persona that you created your childhood and your life, and you made yourself believe it. It’s easier than trying to juggle two separate lives.”

“But what about my family? Do I actually have parents, or are they just in my head? And what about Scott? We’ve known each other since high school.” She thinks for a second and her eyes widen with realization. “Wait, Scott is a god, too, isn’t he.”

Delphine nods. “Hephaestus, god of fire. He was committed to keeping your life as a god hidden from you, because that’s what you wanted, so he posed as your high school friend.”

Cosima hums and then bursts into laughter. “Hold on. Weren’t you two married?”

Delphine groans. “For a little while, yes. It didn’t work out, and he seems very happy with Krystal now, so everything is fine.”

Cosima rolls over and continues laughing and Delphine pushes her off of the bed with her legs while Cosima continues to cackle. Delphine can’t help but join in on the laughter. When Cosima is done making fun of Delphine, she looks up at her from the floor and smiles.

“What is it?” Delphine asks, somewhat self-consciously.

Cosima ducks her head, breaking eye contact. “Oh, it’s nothing.”

“Cosima, tell me,” Delphine pleads.

Cosima rubs the back of her neck and sighs, still not meeting Delphine’s eyes. “When Leekie shot you and you looked up at me and smiled before you died, it felt like I knew you – before, I mean. Were we friends?”

Delphine is quiet for a minute and she rolls onto her side, so she can see the brunette. “We were in love, Cosima.” 

“What?” Cosima finally looks up.

Delphine stares at her with a pained look in her eyes. She explains that they were lovers for some time. They lived together on Olympus with everyone else, but when PT went on his rampage against the mortals, Cosima was adamantly against their extinction and was one of the first to leave Olympus to live among them, but Delphine didn’t follow her. She didn’t care for humans as much, unless she was taking them to bed, and it caused a rift between the two of them. For years, Cosima begged Delphine to join her, until she just gave up after finding out that she and Scott had gotten married. Cosima denounced her godhood and fully embraced mortality. She forced herself to forget about Delphine, about her powers of healing and life, and about all of the others. She'd asked Tony to change her appearance, so none of the other gods could find her, but they sent Scott to follow her to make sure she would be safe, and then once PT declared war, and Hera had sent everyone who was against him down to the realm of man to protect them, everyone else joined in on the charade. Sarah became Cosima’s roommate, Shay became her classmate, and the others became her professors. Cosima became one of the mortals the gods had sworn to protect, and Delphine regretted ever letting Cosima go alone.

Cosima listens to Delphine tell the story and stands up when it’s over. Delphine sits up and the shame she feels and the regret that’s been eating away at her for centuries is finally catching up to her. She’s afraid that Cosima is about to leave the room, so she reaches out and wraps her arms around her waist and holds her in place, pressing her cheek to Cosima’s chest.

“I’m so sorry,” Delphine says quietly, “about everything.”

Cosima places a gentle hand on the Delphine’s back and rubs tiny circles around it. She brings both hands to cradle the blonde’s face and their eyes meet, tears falling down their cheeks. Cosima leans in slowly, stopping just before their lips touch, in case either one of them has any reservations. When neither of them pull away, Cosima closes the distance and presses her lips against Delphine’s gently. She can feel Delphine’s lips quivering, as if she’s unsure how to react, so she pulls away slightly to gauge the situation. Cosima smiles warmly and strokes Delphine’s cheeks with her thumbs.

“Stay?” Delphine asks timidly.

Cosima nods and unbuttons her jeans before peeling them down her legs. Delphine moves to the opposite side of the bed and opens up the covers for Cosima to climb in. Cosima gets into bed and curls up into Delphine’s side. The former god lifts and extends her arm, so Cosima can lie closer to her and lean her head on her shoulder, which she does.

Delphine closes her eyes and takes a long, deep breath. She feels the air enter her lungs and her diaphragm inflates. She’s content with just lying there with Cosima, feeling her warmth against her exhausted body. Mortality certainly did hinder her in ways she never imagined. Their bodies are so fragile and often times at war with itself. She feels Cosima’s warm breath against her neck and she swallows hard. When she feels lips press against her jaw, her heart starts beating faster and she takes a ragged breath. Becoming mortal also caused her confidence to plummet. She had no idea what to do anymore. Her actions have consequences and she could no longer make her problems go away with a flirty gaze or a whisper in someone’s ear. Cosima must have been able to feel Delphine’s body tense up and she removes her lips.

“Are you okay?” she asks. Delphine nods and stares up at the ceiling. “Um, we can just go to sleep. I know we still have a lot to talk about and figure out.” She throws an arm across Delphine’s stomach and huddles close. Delphine turns her head slightly and kisses Cosima’s forehead, causing the brunette to make contented sounds. In the morning, they would figure out how to get Delphine’s powers back and would most likely need to talk about their feelings for each other, but right now, all they need to do is remember that they were in love once and they both owe their lives to each other.


	7. You're a God

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for keeping up with this story, I appreciate you all. I'm still trying to finish up this fic, but I'm definitely slowing down and losing momentum. I hope to get another 4-5 chapters out and then start the next one, whatever that ends up being. Again, I have ideas and I've started some, but I don't know if they'll ever get finished. If you have requests, let me know.
> 
> There's some sex stuff that happens in this chapter.
> 
> Come visit me @bearpantaloons on tumblr. :)

The next morning, Delphine wakes up and sees Cosima watching her.

“This whole not needing to sleep thing is pretty great. I got to creepily stare at you all night,” Cosima jokes.

Delphine blushes and turns her face into the pillow, groaning. Cosima laughs and places a gentle kiss on her shoulder and runs her hand down the plane of Delphine’s back. Part of her can’t believe that she would ever let this woman out of her sight, but she also realizes that what’s happening between the gods and the mortals is bigger than both of them. Humans were no match for PT and his cronies. Someone had to help them and make it a fair fight. The door creaks open and Krystal peeks her head in.

“Hey, D, everyone’s— oh, Cosima, you’re still in here. Uh, I’ll… I’ll give you two some privacy. Everyone’s meeting downstairs. Okay, bye!” She closes the door hastily, slamming it a little too hard.

Cosima and Delphine look at each other and laugh. Delphine gets out of bed and walks to her dresser, pulling out clean clothes. As she takes her shirt off, Cosima fumbles around and falls out of bed.

“I’m gonna— oh, shit, ouch. I’m going to go to my room and change. I’ll see you downstairs!” She rushes off, trying hard not to look at half-naked Delphine, and closes the door behind her, exhaling deeply. She and Delphine were going slow. They were taking their time to rediscover each other. Of course, they hadn’t actually discussed doing so, but that’s what Cosima was telling herself. Slow and steady, like a tortoise or a snail, or like Sarah when she has a hangover. She changes her clothes and heads downstairs. Siobhan, Beth, Tony, and Shay are all sitting at the table with two empty chairs between them. Everyone else is huddled around or sitting in the living room. Siobhan gestures toward one of the empty chairs and has Cosima sit down. Soon after, Delphine comes down the stairs and takes the seat next to Cosima.

“I’m not sure how much Delphine’s told you, Cosima, but I’ll try to fill in any holes there may still be,” Siobhan says.

Cosima straightens her glasses, realizing the uselessness of them; she doesn’t actually need them. “Yeah, Delphine told me most of it – that I wanted to save the humans, but she didn’t come down with me and when PT threatened war, the rest of you followed. I guess the only question I have is how I could forget everything and was I actually sick like Leekie said,” she ponders out loud.

Siobhan nods sagely. “Your godliness was suppressed, dormant. I’ve seen this happen before, a long time ago. Some gods live amongst mortals for so long that they forget who they are and they even begin to show signs of mortality, but it’s always in their head. You were never sick and you weren’t going to die. Leekie planted that seed in your brain, so you believed it and even developed some of the symptoms that you would have had if you were actually sick.”

“Well, does that mean that Delphine’s powers may just be dormant, too?” Cosima asks.

Shay shakes her head. “No, this is completely different. I can’t feel anything in Delphine. Even with you, I could still tell there was something still inside of you, but since we were all sworn to secrecy, we couldn’t tell you.”

“There has to be a way to reverse it,” Scott thinks aloud. “I can start working on something.”

“Okay, good. Scott, you work on that. The rest of you figure out what to do about Leekie and Rachel,” Siobhan instructs everyone else. “Delphine, you hang back with Cosima. Both of you have targets over your heads.”

The group splits off in different directions; Beth takes Helena and Tony to figure out a plan for the Underworld, while Shay, Felix, Krystal, and Alison get supplies ready. Mrs. S heads out to find her contact in Olympus who can get her in touch with others who may be sympathetic to their cause, and Sarah goes to find Cal, who had been working on surveillance and security.

Cosima and Delphine are left inside the house, alone. Delphine goes into the kitchen to make them some tea and Cosima sits on the couch, waiting. When the tea is ready, Delphine joins Cosima and sits next to her. She stares into her cup as the steam rises to warm her face. She looks worried, or perhaps a little sad and Cosima picks up on it. The brunette bumps her shoulder and Delphine does her best to not spill hot water on herself. Cosima chuckles and apologizes.

“I don’t really know what to do with myself,” Delphine admits. “I’ve never felt this way, or felt these feelings before.”

Cosima nods. “Welcome to mortality. It’s pretty shitty.”

Delphine let out a gentle laugh. She was beginning to realize that on top of all of her new negative feelings, she was also feeling other things, things for Cosima that hadn’t been there before. Longing? Anticipation? She wasn’t certain. She knew Cosima was being careful; after hearing that her existence as she knew it was a complete fabrication and that her life as a goddess had been full of betrayal and pain couldn’t be easy to reconcile.

“Why did you marry Scott?” Cosima asks, her voice not quite angry, but maybe a little disappointed.

Delphine sighs and shuts her eyes, trying to remember what was going through her head at the time. “You were gone, Cosima, and I was alone. Scott was… there, and he was kind and loving. He was a good husband, but he knew that I wasn’t putting my all into our relationship, so he let me go. Then, when the rest of us went to live with Siobhan, I tried to find you, and I did. Scott told me you’d changed your appearance and he showed me where you lived and went to school. You looked really happy and I didn’t want to jeopardize that, so I kept my distance. This was when you lived in Berkeley and you were with Emi, I think it was.”

Cosima nods. Emi was her girlfriend for about a year and they were happy together, but something never felt quite right. “She wasn’t you,” she admits. “I never understood why I couldn’t fully commit to her and why I always felt like I was constantly walking away from her, but now I know why. She wasn’t you.”

They both raise their heads until their eyes meet. Delphine takes Cosima’s cup and places it on the coffee table, along with her own. She places her hands on both sides of the brunette’s face and caresses the skin under her thumbs. Their eyes search one another, trying to rediscover their love that had gotten lost within the years apart.

“I’m sorry I didn’t leave with you,” Delphine says. “I was naïve and selfish. I should have gone with you.” Tears fall down her face and Cosima stops them with her thumbs and wipes them away.

“It’s okay, I understand why you didn’t. You had everything up there. Why live with the weak mortals who can’t even take care of themselves, right?” The sentence came out a little harsher than she anticipated, but Cosima was still a little bitter about the way gods saw humans.

“Even so, I loved you. I should have followed you wherever you went and I regret not going every single day. We missed so many years together – centuries. And now, I don’t know how much longer I have,” Delphine’s voice trails off.

Cosima scoots closer and embraces Delphine, nuzzling her face into the blonde’s neck. “We’re going to figure this out. Scott will find something. Or, I can, you know… you won’t have your same powers, you won’t be Aphrodite anymore, but you’ll still be mine and we’ll be together.”

In that moment, Delphine realizes that she may never be a god ever again and tries to figure out if she’s okay with that or not. Could she live as a mortal? Would being with Cosima be enough? After living centuries without her, she knew that it would be enough for her. Life wasn’t worth living if Cosima wasn’t in it, she knew that now.

“I think we should see if Scott can come up with something and go from there. I do not want to go another day without you, chérie.” She reaches over to cup Cosima’s cheek and leans in slowly, brushing her lips against the brunette’s. Their kiss is slow and tender at first, exploring every inch of skin. Delphine tilts her head to the side and grazes her tongue across Cosima’s bottom lip, which causes her to open her mouth wider to allow it entrance. They moan into each other when their tongues roll against each other. Cosima pulls back and smiles.

“I forgot to mention how much I like the French you.”

Delphine laughs and stands up, offering a hand to Cosima. The goddess takes it and stands, allowing herself to be led upstairs and through the door to Cosima’s room. They close the door behind them and Cosima grabs Delphine’s hand and pulls her close until their bodies are flush against one another. In one swift move, Cosima turns their bodies and pushes Delphine into the wall a little too hard and there’s a loud thump. Delphine steps away from the wall slowly and exposes a large dent in the center of it.

“Oh… shit,” Cosima says, trying to stifle a laugh. “I forgot how strong I was. Are you all right?”

Delphine snorts and nods. “I’m fine.”

“I guess I’ll probably have to pay for that, and Felix will never let me live it down,” Cosima says, staring at the dent.

“Don’t worry about that now, mon amour,” Delphine answers, leading her toward the bed. Cosima takes off her shirt and pants before folding down the sheets and climbing in; Delphine does the same. They face each other and Cosima runs her hand through Delphine’s hair.

“I’ve missed you,” she says. “I know it was my own stupid fault for forgetting and running away from everyone, but I missed you before then, too.”

Delphine leans in to kiss her and places a hand on her hip. “I’ve missed you, too, and I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing,” Cosima says with a gentle smile. “You’re here now.”

“Yes, but I’m… like this,” she says, looking down at her mortal body.

“You do know that I don’t care about that, right?” Cosima says, sticking her tongue out between her teeth.

“Remember that when I start getting saggy and my hair turns white,” Delphine replies playfully.

Cosima smiles. “You’ll still be beautiful.”

Delphine smiles back and kisses Cosima, slowly at first, and then with a little more urgency. She swings a leg over Cosima’s waist until she’s straddling her hips. “Oh,” Cosima exhales, “I see this part hasn’t changed.”

Delphine grinds her hips into Cosima and feels her arousal burning all throughout her skin. Cosima sits up and unclasps Delphine’s bra, sliding it down her arms and trailing kisses from her neck down to the mounds of flesh. She palms one in her hand, flicking a nipple under her thumb and Delphine’s hips buck up into her. Her lips attach themselves to the other and the blonde gasps, arching her back and pushing herself into Cosima’s hungry mouth. When Cosima’s tongue flicks the hardened nub, Delphine can’t stop the loud moan that comes from her mouth as she grips the back of Cosima’s neck.

She gasps when she feels a hand slide inside her panties and deft fingers begin to rub her clit. The angle isn’t working and it’s mostly just teasing, so she climbs off of Cosima and removes her underwear, tossing them onto the floor. She climbs back onto the bed and Cosima meets her with a feverish kiss, gripping her hips and ass, pulling her closer. Cosima rolls them over, so Delphine is lying on the bed and Cosima is hovering above her. Lips press onto her neck and teeth graze down soft skin until Cosima’s mouth lands on her breasts once more. She teases and tugs on a nipple with her teeth, which causes Delphine to groan and throw her head back. She needs Cosima to touch her, needs her to fill her.

“Please, Cosima,” she begs.

Cosima hums contentedly. “Mortality has made you desperate.”

Delphine doesn’t have the patience for Cosima’s cockiness and grabs the brunette’s wrist, dragging her hand down to her core. When Cosima feels how wet Delphine is, she moans into the blonde’s neck.

“Fuck,” she whispers. “You’ve never been this wet before.”

“Another perk of being mortal, I suppose,” Delphine replies, smirking. “Now put your fingers inside me.”

Cosima does as she’s told and slides two fingers into Delphine’s heat. As she thrusts them in and out, Cosima watches Delphine’s hand grip onto the headboard above her. Her head’s thrown back into the pillow and her back arches to the ceiling. The moans falling off of her lips fill the quiet air and her hips roll with each thrust. Cosima lays her body between Delphine’s long legs and continues her ministrations, thrusting her fingers agonizingly slowly through the wetness. She places gentle kisses on Delphine’s stomach and on her hips. Delphine lifts herself up off of the mattress to try and get Cosima’s mouth where she wants, but Cosima pulls away.

Cosima feels legs wrapping around her lower back, pulling her closer and she grins cheekily, still not putting any pressure on Delphine’s clit.

“Tell me what you want,” Cosima whispers, slowly drawing her fingers out and lightly circling them around Delphine’s hardened clit, causing her to cry out.

“I want you,” she pants, “I want all of you.”

Hearing how much Delphine wants her spurs Cosima on and she slides her fingers back into her, pumping them harder and faster than before. Her palm makes contact with her clit and causes Delphine to moan with each thrust. Cosima feels Delphine’s walls tightening around her, so she uses her thumb to circle the nub while she takes a nipple into her mouth and sucks. With a loud cry, Delphine comes hard, tensing every muscle in her body and throbbing around Cosima’s delicate fingers. After catching her breath, Delphine’s hips start rolling with Cosima’s fingers still inside her. The brunette looks at her and raises and eyebrow.

“Again?”

The blonde stares at her with fire in her eyes and nods. Cosima leans in to kiss her hard, probing her tongue into Delphine’s mouth and swirling it over hers. Her fingers curl and she uses her hips to thrust them inside Delphine’s pussy, moving her mouth to the long column of her neck.

“I’m going to make you come all over my hand,” Cosima whispers harshly into Delphine’s ear. “And my mouth.”

Delphine gasps as Cosima starts kissing down her body, nipping and sucking bare skin, until she arrives at Delphine’s sex. She gives an experimental lick around her clit and makes Delphine’s hips buck up. Cosima grins and repeats the same motion and continues licking her clit while her fingers press against the blonde’s front walls. Strong hands grip the back of Cosima’s head and shoulder as Delphine’s second orgasm bubbles to the surface. A loud cry echoes through the house as Delphine shudders under Cosima’s mouth and she comes all over her hand, just like the brunette said she would. As Cosima slowly slides her fingers out, Delphine pulls her up and wraps her arms around the goddess’s neck, kissing her.

“That was amazing,” Cosima says. She’s out of breath, even though she wasn’t the one who just came. She drapes one of her thighs over Delphine’s body and begins to grind slowly against the blonde. Delphine can feel herself getting turned on again, so she rolls Cosima onto her back and leans in to kiss her. She feels the brunette’s hands move along her back and her fingers gently slide down her ass to her thighs. Her hips unconsciously jolt forward to try and create more pressure on her body, but this is about Cosima. She lifts her hips backwards and sits up on her knees, kissing down Cosima’s neck, across her clavicle, down to her breasts. When she brings a stiff nipple into her mouth, Cosima hisses and writhes underneath Delphine.

“Please, put your mouth on me,” Cosima begs.

Delphine grins and starts moving down Cosima’s tanned body, peppering kisses as she goes. When she settles between Cosima’s legs, Delphine licks up her dripping folds, causing the goddess to buck her hips up and slam her hand into the headboard above her, cracking it in half.

“Oops, shit, keep going,” Cosima says, looking up at the broken wood.

Delphine continues teasing Cosima with her tongue, tasting her, reveling in her essence. She’s missed this so much; she was a fool for letting Cosima leave and feels the need to make up for lost time. Her body lays flat against the mattress and she wraps her arms around Cosima’s thighs, bending them at the knees. With one smooth thrust, her tongue enters Cosima’s slit and they both moan. Delphine knows that she won’t be able to keep this up for long, but she brings her thumb up to rub Cosima’s clit as she thrusts as deep as she can, until she switches her position, allowing her fingers take over and using her mouth on the bundle of nerves.

When she feels Cosima’s walls being to constrict around her fingers, she speeds up her movements, wanting to push her over.

“Fuck, Delphine, keep going. I’m going to come,” Cosima pants, holding a hand at the back of Delphine’s head, fingers laced around golden curls. She opens her eyes and watches Delphine go down on her, but notices that the blonde’s hips are rising and falling into the mattress. “Holy shit, are you touching yourself?” she asks breathlessly. Delphine replies with a moan.

Cosima body begins to stiffen and the muscles in her stomach constrict until her entire body tingles and she screams Delphine’s name. Delphine continues rubbing her own clit, until she comes along with her. Their bodies go slack and Delphine climbs up to kiss Cosima, allowing her to taste herself. She lies down next to the brunette and leans her head against her shoulder.

“I don’t have the stamina I used to,” Delphine says with a light chuckle.

“You just came three times," Cosima laughs. "It’s okay, we can build up to how we used to be,” Cosima replies, kissing the blonde’s forehead. “Hey, remember that time you grew that phallus on your body? We should try that again sometime.”

Delphine laughs. “I don’t think I can do that anymore, Cosima.”

The brunette looks at her and smiles. “Well, you know humans have toys that can help. Or, we can wait until you get your powers back. I’m in no hurry.”

Delphine lets out a sigh and furrows her brow. The longer she goes without her powers, the more she convinces herself that she’ll never get them back and she’ll have to remain mortal. Cosima rubs Delphine’s arms as if she knows what she’s thinking.

The bedroom door swings wide open, startling the both of them and Felix’s face appears in the doorway.

“Well, it’s about bloody time,” he announces. He sticks his head inside the room and looks at the large dent in the wall and the broken headboard. “I always knew you both liked it rough, but damn.”

Tony pops his head in next and grins widely. “Yeah! Get it, Specs!”

Sarah’s next and shoves Felix aside, smirking at the two women. “Finally. Now I won’t have to watch you two pussyfooting around each other now that you’ve had each other’s pussies.”

Delphine covers her face, huddling into Cosima’s shoulder and groans in embarrassment. Cosima laughs and shoos everyone out. She can hear the boys screaming to the rest of the house that they’re together in bed.

“I guess we should go face the music,” Cosima suggests, lifting the sheets off of her body and swinging her legs over the edge of the bed and getting up to gather her clothes. Delphine walks over to her dresser and pulls out clean clothes, looking into her mirror. Her hair is a mess and she obviously looks like she just had sex. She sighs and follows Cosima downstairs, where everyone is standing around and giving them smug looks.

“That isn’t exactly what I meant when I told the two of you to stay in the house,” Siobhan says, stone-faced. Her face breaks into a smile quickly after and embraces both of them. “I’m glad you worked it out, loves.”

“Okay, enough gawking at our sex life. Did you guys discover anything new?” Cosima asks.

“It looks like the Underworld is trying to mass produce the weapon they used on Delphine,” Beth chimes in. “We need to find a way to protect ourselves against it, or steal them.”

“Scott, have you gotten anywhere with reversing it?” Siobhan asks.

Scott clears his throat. “Maybe. I’ll need to test it, but—“

“What are we waiting for?” Delphine blurts out.

“It could kill you, Delphine,” Scott warns. “Your human body may not be able to handle it.”

“We’re running out of time,” the blonde exclaims, voice full of frustration.

“Hey, it’s okay. We’ll get it figured out,” Cosima offers consolingly, putting her arms around the former goddess. Delphine huffs, slipping out of Cosima’s grasp and goes upstairs to her room, slamming the door. Cosima sighs and waits for someone else to break the awkward silence that’s befallen them.

“I’ve spoken with the centaurs, Valkyries, and Amazons. They will all join us in our cause,” Siobhan says finally.

“Yes, good, many horses,” Helena claps excitedly.

The doorbell rings, interrupting the meeting and Alison walks over to open the door. There is a smallish girl with curly red hair and freckles standing there, hunched over in pain. Her clothes were bloody. Cal and Tony rush over to help her inside.

“What happened to you?” Siobhan asks.

“I, I don’t know. I was just walking along the street and I was attacked by this… thing. Your house was the first one I saw.”

“What’s your name, love?”

“Gracie.”

* * *

Krystal walks upstairs to check on her friend. She knocks gently on the door and opens it before Delphine can answer.

“D? Are you all right?”

Delphine is sitting on the edge of the bed, facing the window, head hanging down to her chest. “I hate feeling so useless, so powerless.”

“It won’t be for forever. Scott’s making really good progress with reversing whatever they did to you. Don’t worry, you’ll be back to your old self in no time.”

“That’s the thing,” Delphine replies, “I don’t know if I want to be my old self – the self who slept with hundreds of men and women every year. Now that I have Cosima back, I only want her. What good are my powers if I never need to use them again?”

“You’re more than your powers, D. I don’t think Cosima is going to care whether or not you have them, or whether or not you use them.”

Delphine knows that Krystal is right. Cosima never cared if Delphine used her powers, although, being able to do the things she could in bed made for very interesting lovemaking, but it was never a necessity.

“If anything,” Krystal continues, “one of us can at least give you immortality, so you won’t have to worry about being stuck with Leekie and Rachel for an eternity. What do you think they do all day? I’ll bet Rachel just stares at herself in a mirror and gets herself off.”

Delphine snorts. “Maybe you need to help her out and find her a mate. Put that B.O.W. of yours to good use again.”

“Oh em gee. D, you’re a genius! I have a plan.”

Krystal tells Delphine her plan, and while everyone else is busy downstairs with Gracie, no one notices the shadows looming in the dark, surrounding the house.


	8. Young God

Krystal, Cal, and Tony sneak around behind the back of the Underworld. Cal was able to map out the floorplan and knew where all of the cameras were, so Tony would be able to sneak in with Krystal’s B.O.W. Cal has his laptop out and is crouched against one of the outside walls. His fingers clack against the keys and he gives a signal that tells Tony that the coast is clear. Tony sneaks into one of the back doors with Krystal’s B.O.W. and the other two wait impatiently for his return. A good ten minutes pass and Krystal is about ready to send in the cavalry, which consists of… her and Cal into the building to find Tony, but, thankfully, Tony comes back out.

“All set,” he says, grinning impishly. “Their water supply should be contaminated.”

“Let’s get out of here before someone catches us,” Cal says and they head back to Mrs. S’s.

* * *

Rachel stands in the VIP suite and prepares a cup of tea for herself. As she puts the kettle on to boil and chooses the teabag that she wants, there’s a knock at the door.

“Come in,” she says, pouring the hot water into her cup.

The tall man from Paul’s war room, Ferdinand, was standing at the door. He made his way across the room and gave Rachel a smirk. “You know Leekie will have my head if he catches me fraternizing with you, right?”

Rachel drinks a sip of tea and turns her back to Ferdinand, allowing him to watch the sway of her hips as she walks toward the couch. “You let me worry about Aldous. I have him eating out of the palm of my hand. Now, come here.” She pulls Ferdinand by his tie and crashes their mouths together, then pushes him onto the couch. Her head is starting to get foggy, but she shakes her head to try and clear it. She hikes up her skirt and straddles Ferdinand, kissing him hard and he brings his hands down to cup her ass. Rachel stands up again and lifts her heel to his crotch, pressing down ever so slightly until he groans.

“I believe it’s time to make me queen of the Underworld,” Rachel hisses as she removes her blazer.

* * *

When Krystal, Tony, and Cal arrive back at the house, they find Helena sitting on the floor with the new girl, Gracie, brushing her hair.

“Helena’s taken quite a liking to her,” Alison whispers. “I’ve never seen her this way with anyone.”

“It’s freaking me out a little,” Beth adds, watching the two of them. “How did it go at the club?”

“Everything went off without a hitch,” Tony answers. “Their water supply should be fully contaminated within the hour and everyone in there will be too busy _getting busy_ to get involved in any war, or to pay attention when we steal the weapons.”

“Perfect. Good job, everyone. Now, we just need to figure out how to reverse the weapon’s effects,” Siobhan says. “Scott said he’s making headway and should be able to start testing soon. I’ll need all hands on deck when that happens, in case there are any issues.”

“What, like Delphine shagging the entire house?” Felix snickers.

“Not funny, Fee,” Cosima glares.

“Sorry, sorry,” he apologizes.

“Okay, with the Underworld taken care of for now, let’s get the house and Delphine ready for the trial run. Alison, Sarah, and I will prepare her room. Everyone else do a sweep around the house and make sure there aren’t any spies or things that could interrupt us.”

Delphine sits at the kitchen table and Cosima sits next to her, rubbing her arm and smiling comfortingly. The house is quiet with just a little noise coming from Delphine’s room. Cosima assumes they’re boarding up the windows and bolstering them, pulling down the paintings from the walls, removing sharp objects. Delphine furrows her brow and anxiously taps her fingers on top of the wooden table. If this works and she gets her powers back, everything will be fine, but in the event that it backfires and she’s either stuck as a mortal, or worse…

“Hey,” Cosima says softly. “You okay?”

Delphine nods. “Just thinking.”

“Everything’s going to be okay,” Cosima reassures her, grinning widely. Her positivity is infectious and Delphine feels herself smiling back.

“Okay, we’re ready,” Scott says from the bottom of the stairs. Cosima and Delphine stand up and follow him to Delphine’s bedroom. They had attached chains to the corners of the bed and it made Delphine nervous. The possibility of her losing control and harming someone was something that she didn’t want to think about.

“Will those even hold her?” Cosima asks, pointing to the chains.

“They’re made from adamantine. I still had some from before,” Scott explains.

“And it won’t hurt her?” Cosima frowns.

“I will be fine,” Delphine reassures her. “Scott knows what he’s doing.” She lies down on the bed and allows Siobhan and Scott to secure the restraints. Cosima stands on the side and leans in to kiss Delphine on the forehead.

“Okay, Shay, stay in here for pain management and Scott will administer the serum. Everyone else out,” Siobhan instructs, shooing everybody out of the room. She squeezes Cosima’s shoulder and gently lifts her off of the bed and ushers her out the door. “Don’t worry about a thing, chicken. Wait out here.” Siobhan closes the door and Cosima doesn’t move from her spot in the hallway. She tries to listen to whatever’s happening in the room, but it’s too quiet. She begins to hear shuffling and voices inside of the room, but it’s muffled. Then there’s a loud thump and the sound of chains rattling. A light shines underneath the door and the house begins to shake. Cosima looks at Tony, who is standing next to her with worry all across her face. That’s when she hears the blood-curdling scream. It was Delphine.

Cosima throws the door open and rushes in, with Tony close behind. Delphine’s back is arched above the mattress and she is grimacing in pain. Her arms are tense and the chains are straining to hold her. The bedframe begins to crack under the pressure, and Siobhan and Shay try to hold her down, but Delphine is too strong. The chains rip away from the wood on the bedframe and Delphine shoots up and rushes straight at Cosima, pushing her against the wall with her arm against her neck. Delphine is breathing heavily and her mouth is in the shape of a snarl. When the others try to pry her away, she pushes them away easily.

“Delphine,” Cosima croaks out. She knows that Delphine won’t be able to kill her, but she can still feel pain and her throat is being crushed under the weight. “Delphine, it’s me.”

Just as Cosima is about to lose consciousness, Shay comes up behind Delphine and places her hands on each side of the blonde’s temples and she collapses. Cosima bends over and begins coughing and rubs her neck, still trying to gasp for breath.

“That was not supposed to happen,” Scott says. “I’m so sorry, Cosima.”

“It’s fine, Scott. She can’t kill me.”

Scott rubs his forehead and mutters to himself. “I must have gotten the levels of marjoram and oregano wrong, or maybe the ambrosia. Stupid!”

“What should we do with her?” Tony asks. “The chains couldn’t hold her.”

“She’ll be out for at least a couple hours,” Shay says. “We can figure it out then.”

A roar comes from outside and Siobhan rushes to the bedroom window. Felix rushes upstairs to warn everyone, but sees that they already know.

Out in the front yard, on the grass, is Cerberus, the twins, a small group of chimera, and a flock of harpies. Leekie and Rachel are standing in the back, looking all too pleased with themselves.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Leekie taunts.

“How did they find us? This house is shrouded,” Tony asks. "And they should've been preoccupied because of Krystal's B.O.W."

His question is soon answered as the front door to the house opens and Gracie runs out and jumps into the arms of Mark.

“That little twat,” Felix hisses. "She told them." He runs out the door with the rest following him. Beth, Sarah, and Helena were already standing just outside the door, facing the intruders. When they all meet up, Beth clenches her fists and scowls. No one moves a muscle, just stares at each other, waiting for someone to break and make the first move. Leekie smirks and snaps his fingers. Cerberus lifts his head up to the night sky and howls, signaling everyone to rush forward. Beth and company do the same and they clash with each other in the middle.

Beth’s owls do what they can to stave off the harpies, while the rest try to take care of the twins, Gracie, the chimera, and Beth takes on Cerberus. Leekie and Rachel remain far away, watching everything unfold. Cosima stands in the doorway and runs full force at the two of them. She knocks Rachel back with her shoulder and trips Leekie with a leg sweep.

“How’s Ferdinand?” Cosima asks.

“He’s a little tied up, at the moment,” Rachel answers. “You didn’t think your little parlor trick would work, did you? When Gracie told us what you were up to, we sent a sentry out to investigate the house before we came.” She gets up and brushes herself off, blood boiling at the sight of mud on her skirt. She swings at Cosima and her fist contacts the brunette’s cheek, sending her flying back. They continue trading blows, until Leekie snaps his fingers again and hands emerge from the ground, holding Cosima’s legs in place. She struggles to get free, but can’t escape the grip of the hands below. Helena attempts to shoot an arrow at Rachel, but she grabs in midair right before it hits her and instead stabs it into Cosima’s shoulder; Cosima wails in pain.

Tony rushes over and attempts to slice the hands that are grabbing Cosima’s legs, but there are too many. Leekie grabs him by the throat and sneers.

“I’m very disappointed in you, Tony,” he says while tightening the grip around his neck. Knowing that he can’t kill another god, he can at least crush his trachea. The pain in Cosima’s shoulder is excruciating; Helena uses special arrows in battle, so they’re laced with a type of poison that will enter her bloodstream quickly. When Cosima looks around, it looks like all is lost – Beth tries to hold off Cerberus, but he is too big and too strong. The harpies are clawing and pecking at Alison, while Helena shoots as many as she can out of the air; Sarah and Shay are doing their best to not get torn to shreds by the chimera; Felix and Cal are keeping the twins busy.

A loud crash comes from the upstairs window of the house and a figure leaps out and falls to the ground in the center of all of the fighting, creating a large shockwave that throws everyone to the floor. Delphine grabs Cerberus by the tail and swings him in a circle, releasing him into the air and watches him fly hundreds of yards away. She grabs each harpy and tosses them away like javelins, deep into the sky. The twins, Gracie, and the chimera retreat, while Rachel grabs Leekie by the arm and drags him away.

Delphine walks over to Cosima, who is now curled up on the ground and holds her in her arms. The arrow is still lodged into her shoulder and she calls for Shay, who immediately runs over. Helena also joins them and looks very upset.

“It is nightshade,” she says. “It was not meant for Cosima.”

“We know, Helena,” Shay says, trying to comfort her. Helena frowns and runs off down the street. Shay looks over to Delphine. “You know, Cosima’s really the only one who knows how to save herself. I can take her pain away, but she knows what to use for the poison.”

Delphine looks down at Cosima and brings her lips to her forehead, placing a gentle kiss on it. “Please wake up, chérie. I can’t lose you again.”

Cosima’s eyes flutter open and she groans in pain, holding her hand up to her shoulder.

“Cosima,” Delphine says, “You’ve been poisoned with nightshade. What do we do?”

The brunette breathes heavily. “Sideritis,” she whispers. “Make a tea out of it.” Shay nods and runs into the house with Siobhan. They scour the entire kitchen and look for any and all herbs they may have tucked away. “Hey,” Cosima says, smiling slightly. “You got your powers back.”

Delphine returns the smile and nods. “Oui, they came back with a little something… extra. I’m sorry if I hurt you before. I wasn’t in control.”

“It’s fine, wouldn’t be the first time a girlfriend tried to kill me,” she chuckles.

Siobhan calls out from the front doorway of the house. “Bring her inside.” Delphine lifts Cosima up into her arms and carries her into the house, setting her down gently on the couch. Shay brings over a mug, while everyone else huddles around. Cosima clutches the mug and sips it. She then sits up and holds the arrow that’s still poking out of her shoulder and breaks the back half of it off, grunting in pain.

“Shay, can you dull the pain for me, please?”

Shay lays her hands around the bleeding wound and Cosima takes a deep breath. She takes a deep breath and relaxes before putting her own hand on her shoulder. Slowly, the arrow comes out on its own and Cosima’s open wound closes around itself, leaving no scars or any trace that she had ever been punctured. She finishes drinking her tea and lies back on the couch. Everyone around her lets out a breath of relief and Delphine wraps her arms around the brunette, holding her close and nuzzling her head in Cosima’s neck.

“So, Gracie was a mole,” Sarah announces.

“Where’s Helena?” Alison asks.

“She probably went after that lying bitch,” Felix answers. “We let her into our home…”

“What are we going to do now? If Rachel knows where we are, it’s only a matter of time before she tells PT,” Cosima says.

“We may have to take the fight to him,” Beth answers, walking toward the door. “I’ll round everyone up and bring them back here. Make sure no one leaves, stay together.”

* * *

Back at the Underworld, Leekie growls in frustration as he throws a table into the bar, smashing bottles of alcohol and breaking a mirror.

“Aldous,” Rachel sighs, standing far away and crossing her arms across her chest.

Leekie ignores her and continues throwing furniture around the club.

Rachel tries again. “Aldous, we are going to have to pay for all of this.”

“You think I care about that?” he spits, walking up to Rachel, towering over her. “While you were busy opening your legs for that idiot, those mortal lovers were getting Delphine’s powers back. And now she’s more powerful than ever.”

Rachel walks up to Leekie and strokes his cheek. “You are the King of the Dead. No one is more powerful than you. Your brothers are fools; they do not possess your intellect or your discipline.” Leekie closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He takes Rachel’s hand and kisses the top of it.

“You are right, my dear. Forgive me. Let us regroup and prepare for the next battle.” As he walks toward the back of the club, Rachel glares at him until he disappears. She makes her way to the VIP suite and sees that Ferdinand is still in the same place where she left him. He was such an obedient lapdog. She removes his blindfold and unties him and he smirks while rubbing his wrists.

“Judging by the dissatisfied look on your face, I’m guessing you didn’t succeed.”

Rachel shakes her head. “Delphine has her powers and she is…” she trails off. “Very strong.”

Ferdinand thinks for a moment. “Well, if she is anything like a new god, she can be easily persuaded, if you know what I mean.”

Rachel hums and then a smile forms across her face. “Go fetch Tony. I have a plan and I need him.” Ferdinand nods and exits the room. Rachel walks back out to the bar area and tells the twins to start cleaning up the area. By the time they’re done cleaning, Ferdinand returns, holding Tony by his collar and throwing him forward until he stumbles to the ground in front of Rachel. She grins menacingly and waits for him to stand up and face her.

“You would think they would have tightened their security around the house,” Ferdinand scoffs. “It was too easy.”

“What do you assholes want?” Tony asks, gritting his teeth.

“I have another job for you, Tony,” Rachel answers.

“And what makes you think I’ll help you?”

“Well, as the guide to the Underworld, you know you can visit its inhabitants at any time. You wouldn’t want to get cut off from your daughter for the rest of eternity, would you?”

“You… you can’t do that,” Tony says.

“I can and I will, unless you cooperate.”

Tony lowers his head in defeat. He prays that everyone will forgive him, but knows there is a good chance that he will never be allowed to step one foot into Siobhan’s house again. He sighs. “What do you want?”

“I want you to make me look like Cosima.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gracie - Apate (goddess of deceit)


	9. Deceiver of the Gods

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys tired of me yet? Thanks for sticking with this fic. As I said before, it'll probably get wrapped up in the next 2-3 chapters, yay!
> 
> **Trigger/content warning:** The beginning of this chapter is going to have some dubious consent, so beware.

_“I want you to make me look like Cosima.”_

“What are you planning to do?” Tony asks.

“That’s not for you to know,” Rachel answers. Tony sighs, knowing he has no choice but to do as he’s told, unless he wants to spend an eternity alone. He waves a hand in the air and Rachel’s hair grows longer and darker, tattoos form on both of her forearms, and she now has a nose ring and glasses. She takes a look in the new mirror behind the bar and grins. “Perfect,” she says in a familiar Californian accent, shedding her posh British one. 

Tony frowns and tries to think of a way to escape, so he can warn Cosima and Delphine, but every exit is blocked. Rachel practices walking around and instead of standing up straight like she normally does, she forces herself to slouch a little or lean to the side. When she speaks, she speaks with her hands, and when she smiles, she’s all teeth. It feels odd, but she is no longer Rachel.

Back at the Hestia House, everyone is starting to get stir crazy, ever since Beth told them all to stay put. Cosima sits up in bed and tells Delphine that she’s craving ice cream, so she throws on some clothes and sneaks out the window, ignoring Delphine’s warnings and pleas to stay inside of the house.

Sometime later, Cosima returns without ice cream and sits on the bed next to Delphine, who had fallen asleep. She kisses her shoulder and the blonde stirs, opening her eyes.

“Mon amour, where is your ice cream?”

“I ate it on the way back. Besides, I would rather have something else,” Cosima says slyly. She leans in and catches Delphine’s lips between her own, kissing her feverishly. The brunette swings her leg over Delphine’s body until she’s straddling her and continues assaulting her mouth, sticking her tongue inside without preamble and biting her bottom lip until she draws blood.

“Cosima, what’s gotten into you?” Delphine asks, pushing the other woman back a little.

“What? Don’t you like me taking charge for once?”

“Non, it’s... good. I like it. It’s just not what I’m used to.”

Cosima smirks. “Well then, let me continue.” She slips her hand down the blonde’s thigh and hooks it around her hips, grinding down and pushing into Delphine’s center. Delphine throws her head back and almost asks Cosima to get the adamantine chains, so she won’t break the bed, but decides there’s no time. As Cosima continues marking Delphine’s neck and begins sliding her hand under the waistline of her pants, the window to the room slides open.

“What the _fuck_?”

Delphine looks over to where the voice is coming from and her eyes widen with shock. Cosima is standing in front of them with two Eskimo Pies in her hands. Delphine stares at the imposter and throws her off of the bed. The fake Cosima starts to laugh and licks her lips.

“You really need to keep a closer eye on your girlfriend. Who knows where else she’s been, or who she’s been with, especially if she can’t tell the real Cosima from a fake one.” Rachel drops her disguise and is back to her bob haircut and business attire. A pained growl comes from Cosima, who pushes Rachel into the wall and then throws her to the floor. She punches Rachel with all her might, leaving her bloody and bruised, but Rachel just laughs.

“Apparently, your girlfriend likes it rough. I can give you a few pointers if you’d like.” With a final blow, Cosima knocks Rachel unconscious, then Siobhan, Sarah, and Krystal run into the room.

“Quick, get the chains,” Siobhan instructs Sarah, who nods and runs off to find Scott’s chains. Delphine is still sitting on the bed, unmoved, but completely horrified.

“Cosima, I didn’t—“

“Don’t,” the brunette interrupts, holding a hand up to keep Delphine from continuing. She leaves the room without another word and stomps down the stairs. Siobhan follows her and Krystal sits on the bed to try and comfort her friend.

“What happened, D?”

“Rachel fucking Duncan happened. She tricked me, made me think she was Cosima and... “ She couldn’t finish that sentence. The shame she felt, the overwhelming guilt, was too much. Normally, it wouldn’t matter so much, but because she had done it to Cosima, it was that much worse. She never wanted to hurt Cosima; she’d never felt anything the same way that she feels things for her.

“Just explain everything. Cosima will understand.”

Delphine shakes her head. “Non, I should have known better. I should have seen through Rachel’s trick. Merde.” Krystal squeezes Delphine’s shoulder and Sarah comes in with the chains. She puts them around Rachel’s wrists, drags her out of the room, and tosses her into the basement. Krystal convinces Delphine to go downstairs with her and they see Cosima and Siobhan sitting at the kitchen table, talking.

Delphine feels the same way she did back when Cosima had been taken by Leekie and was told she was dying. Her heart hurt and she has her tail between her legs, just waiting for Cosima to scream at her, but nothing comes. There is no yelling, no raised voice, just sniffling. Cosima has her head in her hands and her chest heaves with each sob. Siobhan takes a look at Delphine and stands up.

“Try not to kill her,” she tells Cosima. “Hear what she has to say first.” She walks into the basement and takes Krystal with her, giving the two women some privacy. Delphine slowly sits down at the table, trying not to make any noise or sudden movements that might set Cosima off. She links her fingers together and sets her hands on top of the table, worrying her bottom lip, not really sure how to begin.

Thankfully, Cosima begins for her. “How could you?” she asks. “After everything we’ve been through?”

“I, I didn’t know it was her, Cosima. Please believe me.”

Cosima feels the bile rise into her throat. The thought of Rachel kissing Delphine, touching her, _fucking her_ makes her sick. “You really expect me to believe that you couldn’t tell? Come on, Delphine. You’ve been with how many people? Surely, the goddess of love should be able to tell the difference. What, with all that experience.”

Now it’s Delphine’s turn to get angry. “Don’t you dare make this about me and the people I’ve been with. The number of people that I have taken to bed has no place in this conversation, because it doesn’t matter. Rachel fooled me. She looked like you, talked like you. She even smelled like you. If the roles had been reversed and she pretended to be me, I would like to see how you would react. But, again, it doesn’t matter. Don’t you see? This is what she wants. She wants us to fight, to drift apart. She knows that causing fighting between ourselves will distract us too much to fight in the war.”

She reaches out for one of Cosima’s hands and holds onto it for dear life. “I love you, Cosima. I always have. I regret each day that I was away from you and by the time I realized it, it was too late. You’d already denounced your godhood and wanted to become mortal. I’d lost you. I won’t let that happen again.”

Cosima is silent, but she squeezes Delphine’s hand back. She wipes the remaining tears from her eyes with her other hand and breathes in deeply. “I love you, too,” she whispers. Delphine takes Cosima’s hand and lifts it to her mouth, kissing it and holding the brunette’s palm up to her cheek. “Maybe we should come up with a safe word or a password, or something.”

Delphine chuckles. “If that’s what you want, chérie. I’ll do anything.”

“Let’s go see how Siobhan is getting along with Rachel,” Cosima says as she stands up. Delphine follows her down the stairs to the basement and they see Siobhan standing over Rachel’s hunched over body, her face dripping with blood. Krystal is standing off to the side.

Cosima walks up to her. “Why?”

Rachel laughs humorlessly and spits blood onto the floor. “You had everything. You gave up your godhood. You gave away your gifts and for what? To be one with the humans?” She scoffs. “I gave up everything to be where I am, just to be able to live. It disgusts me that you still got everything you wanted when you deserve none of it. I wanted to be able to take away the most important thing you have - your love.”

“I hate to break it to you, but it didn’t work. We still love each other, so your plan backfired.”

“Perhaps, but you can add my name to the long, long list of people who have had their hands down your girlfriend’s pants.”

Cosima growls and surges forward, but is stopped by Siobhan, who holds her back.

“Let me go! I’ll kill her,” Cosima yells. Siobhan pushes her back, into Delphine’s arms.

“Take her upstairs.”

Delphine listens obediently and walks Cosima back up to the ground floor and Krystal follows. Siobhan makes sure both are gone and the door is closed before facing Rachel again. She pulls out a syringe from a pouch and Rachel furrows her brow.

“What are you planning to do, Mrs. Sadler?”

“I’m going to make sure you never harm any of my children ever again.” She walks forward slowly and the only other sounds that come from the basement are Rachel’s screams.

* * *

Back in her bedroom, Cosima is pacing up and down the room, balling her hands into fists and releasing them. Delphine sits on the bed and watches her, not wanting to make the situation worse.

“Chérie, please calm down.”

“Calm down? Calm down?! Mrs. S doesn’t kill people. She’s going to let Rachel live. After everything she’s done, Rachel still gets to live.”

Delphine reaches out to grab one of Cosima’s hands, to try and ground her and it works for all of two seconds before Cosima pushes Delphine back and climbs on top of her. “Rachel said you like it rough. Is that true? You want me to be rough? Take charge?”

Delphine shakes her head. “No, I love the way you touch me. I don’t need you to do anything else.” Cosima ignores her and attaches her lips to Delphine’s neck, biting down hard on the skin between her neck and shoulder and sucking the soft skin, marking her, then going over the marks Rachel already made. Delphine winces at the pain and when she feels Cosima’s hands roughly pulling at her pants, she reaches down and tries to slow Cosima’s movements. She normally isn’t one to deny someone sex, but she knows Cosima is upset and isn’t acting like herself. When Cosima continues to fight, Delphine turns them over, so that she’s on top and holds Cosima’s hands above her head. “Cosima, _stop_. Everything that Rachel said was to get inside your head and you’re letting her."

Cosima chokes back a sob and finally relaxes her body. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Delphine.”

Delphine gets off of Cosima and lies down next to her, wrapping her up in her arms, kissing her all over her face, shushing her. “It’s okay. I am yours, Cosima. I will only ever be yours.” Cosima lifts her eyes to meet Delphine’s and cups her cheek. She leans in slowly and presses her lips into the blonde’s and it’s much gentler than the frenzied movements from moments before. It’s as if she’s trying to apologize through her kisses, through reverent touches, and Delphine is all too eager to forgive. Cosima places a soft kiss on the purple mark that she left previously on Delphine’s neck and puts her hand over it. When she lifts her hand, the bruise is completely gone and she looks down at Delphine and smiles.

“Looks like my powers have more uses than I originally thought,” she jokes.

Delphine rolls on top of Cosima and kisses her, dragging her hands down the brunette’s ribcage and slots one of her thighs between Cosima’s legs to press deliciously up into her core. Cosima throws her head back and gasps, digging her fingernails into Delphine’s shoulders.

They feverishly remove all of their clothing, tossing them around the room. The blonde grins widely and climbs back on top of Cosima, descending lower, kissing a path from Cosima’s belly and nips at her hipbone before settling between her legs. She takes a deep breath and inhales Cosima’s scent, becoming intoxicated by it. She slides her tongue through Cosima’s already wet folds and revels in the taste. Cosima cries out expletives and if her headboard hadn’t already been cracked in half, she probably would have broken it again. Delphine swirls her tongue around Cosima’s clit, causing her to moan loudly. When she feels fingers start to grip her hair and pull her forward, she interrupts what she’s doing and kisses her way back up to Cosima’s neck. She brings her lips impossibly close to the shell of Cosima’s ear and whispers, “Do you remember the thing you wanted me to do when I didn’t have my powers back yet?” 

Cosima furrows her brow, trying to remember what they had talked about and then her eyes widen in realization. “ _Oh._ ” She feels Delphine spread her legs wider with her knees and something hard bumps her clit and sends a jolt of electricity throughout her entire body. Looking down, she sees a phallus jutting out between Delphine’s legs and her breath hitches. Delphine slides it slowly through Cosima’s folds, gathering wetness along the shaft.

“Shit. Shit,” Cosima repeats each time the tip crosses her entrance, until it finally enters her and she grabs onto Delphine’s forearm, squeezing it as she gasps. Delphine begins to thrust slowly, fully aware that it will frustrate the hell out of Cosima. She loves making people beg, Cosima especially. Cosima does her best to meet Delphine’s thrusts, but they’re much too slow and she’s getting desperate. She wraps her legs around the backs of Delphine’s thighs and pulls her closer, but Delphine resists and continues her torturously slow thrusts.

“Delphine, _please_.”

There it is. Delphine smirks and thrusts the phallus deep within Cosima until she cries out. Cosima tries to pull her closer and faster, but the blonde wants to draw it out and continues with her slow thrusts. When Cosima tries to reach down and rub her own clit, Delphine slaps her hand away and holds both of her arms above her head, holding them there. Cosima huffs, frustrated with how slowly Delphine is going.

“You’re killing me,” Cosima whines, rolling her hips forward.

Delphine smirks. “I haven’t even begun yet, chérie.”

For the next half hour, Delphine brings Cosima to the brink of release only to stop abruptly and it’s driving the brunette crazy. Scratch marks and bruises adorn Delphine’s body, reminders of the torture she’s been putting Cosima through. When she’s satisfied that she’s made Cosima suffer long enough, she turns the brunette over, so that she’s leaning on her elbows. Delphine enters her from behind and Cosima moans loudly.

“Oh, fuck. Yes,” she hisses.

Delphine makes a trail with her hand from Cosima’s lower back up to her shoulder and neck and grips it while she begins thrusting. Her thrusts become harder and faster, no longer holding back. The only sounds in the room are Cosima’s grunts and the slapping of Delphine’s hips on the backs of Cosima’s thighs. Delphine reaches around and slides her fingers through Cosima’s wetness and begins rubbing tight circles around her clit.

“Jesus, fuck,” Cosima yells while gripping the sheets beneath her. “Oh, god, I’m going to come. _Harder._ ” With the last few thrusts, Cosima lets out a strangled sob as she climaxes and shudders as her orgasm washes over her. Both women collapse onto the bed and Delphine’s phallus disappears.

“Holy shit,” Cosima sighs. “That was incredible.”

Delphine smiles from her spot on the bed and Cosima turned toward her, laying her hand on the blonde’s stomach. As Cosima starts kissing her neck, sucking on the smooth skin, there’s a knock at the door.

“Mrs. S needs to see you two,” Scott says from the other side. Cosima groans and starts putting her clothes back on. Delphine kisses her shoulder and does the same. They hastily wash up and walk down to the basement together, finding Siobhan standing near the door. Rachel’s body is curled up on the floor and her hands are still tied behind her back.

“What happened to her?” Cosima asks.

“She will never hurt anyone else ever again,” Siobhan says simply, wiping her hands on a towel. Helena walks down the basement stairs and joins them; she’d come back after stalking Gracie back to the Underworld. Siobhan turns to her, “Take her back to Leekie and bring Tony back with you. Take Cal and Sarah.” Helena nods and picks up Rachel’s unconscious body, carrying her back upstairs. She motions to Delphine and Cosima to follow her back into the kitchen and they do.

Siobhan sits down at the table and rubs her forehead with her hand. She looks exhausted. Cosima joins her at the table and Delphine starts boiling water for tea before sitting down at the table, as well.

“Rachel had some interesting things to say,” Siobhan says. “Tony was the one who disguised her as Cosima, so I will need to deal with him once Helena brings him back. I was also able to get her to tell me how the weapon that was used on Delphine works, so I will need to speak with Beth.”

“You need to rest, Mrs. S,” Cosima says.

Siobhan shakes her head. “There’s no time. The war is at our doorstep – literally. We need to prepare. Come, we need to talk to Beth.”

* * *

Helena slings Rachel over her shoulder while Sarah and Cal follow behind her. They stand in front of the Underworld and wait for someone to come greet them. Gracie slowly opens the door and looks out; Helena bares her teeth and growls. Sarah places a hand on her shoulder to calm her.

“Not yet, meathead.”

Leekie walks out behind Gracie and is accompanied by Cerberus.

“To what do we owe the pleasure…” he trails off after seeing Rachel’s body. “What did you do to her?”

“You’re lucky she’s still alive after what she did,” Sarah snaps back. “We want to make an exchange. We’ll give you Rachel back and you give us Tony.”

Leekie nods to Gracie and instructs her to bring Tony out. When she returns, she’s holding Tony by his collar and he looks worn out and disheveled. Gracie releases Tony and Helena walks forward with Rachel, laying her on the ground in front of Leekie before walking backwards toward Sarah and Cal, not taking her eyes off of Leekie.

“You okay?” Sarah asks Tony. He merely nods and Cal takes him back to the car. Sarah follows after them and Helena stands still for another few seconds.

“Your pet is mortal now,” she says, spitting on the ground in front of her, turning her back to them and walking toward the car. Cal drives them back, while Sarah and Helena both glare at Tony the entire time.

“Why did you betray sestras?” Helena asks.

Tony sighs and hangs his head. “Leekie and Rachel gave me no choice. They have my daughter and threatened to never let me see her again.”

“You could have come to us for help,” Sarah says from the front seat.

“I know, I’m sorry. Cosima and Delphine have every right to be upset with me. What I did was unacceptable. I will accept my fate.”

When they arrive back at the house, Tony walls through the front door and Siobhan is waiting for them at the table with Cosima and Delphine.

“Leave us,” Siobhan tells everyone in the room.

“But—“ Cosima begins to argue.

“You will have your chance. Let me speak with Tony first.”

Cosima huffs and goes upstairs, Delphine following behind. Cal and Sarah retreat to their bedroom and Helena goes outside for target practice. After everyone leaves Siobhan sits across from Tony, but doesn’t say a word. The look on her face is unreadable, but Tony knows that Siobhan can snap her fingers and he’ll break, so he starts explaining himself before it comes to that.

“Mrs. S, I didn’t have a choice. My daughter is in the Underworld and they threatened to keep her from me if I didn’t help them. I had no idea what they were going to do, what Rachel would do. I don’t deserve forgiveness, but I’ll do anything to make it up to all of you.”

Siobhan sits and sips her tea, still saying nothing and Tony shifts in his chair uncomfortably. “Mrs. S? Say something.”

Siobhan takes another sip of her tea and sets the cup down on the table in front of her. “To say I’m disappointed would be the understatement of the century. You could have come to us. We could have helped you. Instead, you let Rachel have her way, she infiltrated this home, abused Delphine, and forced me to do something I swore I would never do. I will need some time to think of a proper punishment for you.”

Tony nods. “I understand. I’ll be in my room.” He walks upstairs and sees Cosima and Delphine waiting for him. He sighs and walks past them, leaving the door open for them to follow. He sits on the bed and awaits his verbal beating. Cosima stands in front of him, both of her hands balled into fists.

“How could you, Tony?”

“I, I didn’t know what she was going to do. I thought she would just infiltrate the house for intel. I didn’t think—I didn’t realize how cruel she was.” He turns to face Delphine. “I am so sorry.”

“It’s okay, Tony,” Delphine replies.

“It’s okay? You’re going to forgive him just like that?” Cosima exclaims, waving her arms in the air. “After what Rachel did to you?”

Delphine merely shrugs her shoulders. “What’s done is done. Siobhan made her mortal; she won’t be able to hurt any of us ever again.”

“Yeah, until they get a hold of more ambrosia, or find another way to restore her immortality. This isn’t over.”

* * *

While Rachel rests on a bed in the VIP lounge, Leekie throws newly-purchased barstools at the brand new mirror behind the bar. He flips every table upside-down, while Gracie, Rudy, and Mark watch off to the side.

“I am going to pay my brother a visit. Make sure Rachel is taken care of,” he instructs. Gracie and the twins all nod silently and watch him leave the club. Leekie arrives at Westmoreland’s estate in no time and he is met by guards. “I’m here to see Zeus,” he says.

“He is not expecting visitors,” one of the guards says.

“He will see me. Just go get him,” Leekie spits back.

“Let him through,” PT says from the top of the stairs. The guards move off to the sides and allow Leekie to ascend. He and PT walk side-by-side and head to the botanical garden on the premises.

“Rachel is mortal,” Leekie says. PT raises and eyebrow, but doesn’t say anything. “Those… human-lovers did this to her.”

“There must be a reason for this attack. I’ve never known them to do something like this unprovoked.”

Leekie frowns. “Rachel may have posed as one of them in order to infiltrate the house and… took one of them to bed.”

PT barks out a laugh and claps his hands in amusement. “That’s my girl. Well, Hades, you are in luck. I got a new shipment of ambrosia in earlier this week. I will have Hera create a potion for you to take back with you, but it will not be cheap.”

“You know I’m good for it, brother,” Leekie replies.

“Oh, I don’t mean money,” PT says with a glint in his eyes. They continue walking through the gardens and end up at a training facility. Paul and Art are leading exercises and their troops are lined up, row after row, following their movements. As PT and Leekie remain distracted by the army, Ferdinand sneaks out of the compound and heads toward the Underworld. He arrives at the club and lets himself in. Rudy and Mark are cleaning up the mess that Leekie left and Gracie is in the office, ordering new furniture. Ferdinand makes his way toward the VIP lounge and sees Rachel lying down in the fetal position. He sits on the edge of the bed and frowns.

“Who’s there?” Rachel asks, sitting up in the bed in a panic. “Oh, it’s you.”

“I came as soon as I’d heard what happened,” Ferdinand says, reaching out to touch Rachel’s hand. The mortal recoils and pulls her hand away.

“You should leave before Leekie comes back.”

“I’m not leaving without you. Come with me, Rachel,” Ferdinand begs.

Rachel rolls her eyes. “You know I can’t. He’s bound me here.”

“No, he bound you here as a goddess. You’re mortal now, so you can leave. We can leave here together.”

Rachel considers Ferdinand’s proposal. On one hand, she would love to get away from Leekie, but on the other, she didn’t want to be tied down by another co-dependent god, especially now that she was mortal. Still, this may be her last chance to escape Leekie once and for all. “Fine, help me up.” Ferdinand rushes to her side and holds out his hands for her to grab onto, which she does. With a short grunt, she stands on her feet and shuffles across the room to grab her belongings. Her body is still sore and bruised from the interrogation, so it takes her a moment to get from point A to point B. Ferdinand drapes his coat over her shoulders and escorts her toward the front door. As Rudy and Mark attempt to stop them, Ferdinand waves his hand in their direction and the both of them start to tremble in fear and fall to the ground, covering their faces.

He opens the car door, so Rachel can get in, then takes her bags around to the trunk. When he gets into the driver’s seat, he starts the car and asks, “Where do you want to go? Bali? Morocco?”

“Not yet. There’s somewhere we need to go first.”

* * *

Cosima lies in bed, wide awake, while a sleeping Delphine snores quietly beside her. With so many thoughts going through her head, there was no way that Cosima would be able to calm her mind enough to rest. How was she going to ever forgive Tony? Could she? A noise from the window interrupts her thoughts and she rushes over to the figure who’s climbing into her room. Cosima takes the person by the neck and throws them to the floor, not releasing the grip of her hand on their neck one bit.

“You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve showing your face here again,” she growls through a clenched jaw.

“Cosima, please, listen to me. I want to help you and then you’ll never have to see me again,” Rachel chokes out, grasping at Cosima’s wrist and hand. Cosima tightens her grip around Rachel’s neck, until the other woman’s eyes shut and her body goes limp.

Cosima stands over Rachel’s body and glares down at her. “No.”


	10. Godmode

Ferdinand jumps through the window and knocks Cosima away from Rachel’s body. The noise startles Delphine awake and she quickly subdues him and holds his arms behind his back and throws him against a wall.

“What’s going on?” she asks.

“We’re leaving. This war isn’t worth the pain it’s causing. Rachel wanted to stop here first, though. I don’t know why.” He looks over at Rachel’s body, which still hasn’t moved. “Oh, Zeus. Is she…?”

“She’s not dead. I’m not a murderer,” Cosima answers, rolling her eyes.

“We came to ask you for help. Leekie won’t stop looking for her after we leave, so we need to find a way to escape him for good.”

Cosima laughs incredulously. “And why the fuck would we help you? You do know what Rachel did, right?”

“Yes, yes, and I apologize on her behalf.”

“Nope, not good enough. She has inflicted so much suffering and pain. She needs to pay,” Cosima argues. Delphine places a gentle hand on Cosima’s arm.

“Chérie, don’t you think there has been enough pain already?” She’s referring to her own death, Cosima almost dying. She just wants it all to end. “If they’re gone, that’s two less people we have to worry about when the war starts.”

Cosima laughs humorlessly. “How can you just forget what Rachel did?”

Delphine strokes Cosima’s cheek gently. “I am not forgetting anything, but there are more important things to worry about now.”

Cosima sighs. “Fine, but keep her away from me.” She walks out of the room and Delphine motions for Ferdinand to follow her downstairs. He lifts Rachel off of the floor and carries her downstairs, where everyone is already waiting.

“What is she doing here?” Tony asks, arms folded across his chest.

“They need help escaping Leekie,” Delphine explains.

“Are you serious? No fuckin’ way,” Tony replies. “She’s evil, she doesn’t deserve salvation, or freedom, or _anything._ ”

“Tony, I get that you’re pissed. I am, too, but if we do this they’ll both be out of the picture. Leekie may even be too distraught to fight, so PT will have to make do without them,” Cosima says. “This war is bigger than all of us.”

“Well, I ain’t helping her,” Sarah says, leaving the room abruptly. Tony, Cal, and Alison follow her.

Siobhan lets out a sigh. “What exactly do you need, Ferdinand?”

Ferdinand goes through the plan that he and Rachel came up with, explaining it in great detail. By the time he’s done talking, Rachel comes to and rubs her sore neck. “I see you’ve made friends, Ferdinand,” she says, noting his tea in front of him.

“I was telling them about our plan to get Leekie out of our hair.”

“And?”

“We’ve agreed to help you, on one condition,” Siobhan says. Rachel raises an eyebrow, motioning her to continue. “You will never show your face here ever again. I don’t care where you go, who you stay with, but you will not speak to or contact any of my children ever again.”

“Your children?” Rachel scoffs. “I think PT will have something to say about that. But, yes, fine. I agree to your terms. We will not leave the Underworld.” She stands up. “If I could just ask you for one more favor…”

“No,” Cosima interrupted. “She is not staying here.” She looks at Delphine helplessly.

“They have nowhere to go and Leekie will be looking for them,” Krystal adds.

“So what? They brought this on themselves,” Felix retorts.

“Enough!” Siobhan roars. “They will stay in the basement. We will have two lookouts at all times. If they try anything, then you have my blessing to kill them, but until then, they are our guests.”

Cosima throws her hands up in defeat, walks upstairs to her room and Delphine follows. “I cannot believe Mrs. S is giving them sanctuary, after everything they’ve done. I was fine with letting them walk out of here alive, but this is ridiculous.” She paces around the floor of the small room and waves hands in the air as she speaks. “And, honestly, Siobhan is the one who made Rachel mortal. Does she feel guilty? What’s the point of helping them? They would never do the same for us.”

“Mon amour, try to relax. There’s nothing we can do about it now,” Delphine says consolingly.

Just as Cosima is about to raise her voice again, there’s a knock at the door. Cosima opens it and sees Rachel standing in front of her.

“What the hell do you want?” Cosima spits at her.

“May we speak?” Rachel says, still stiff as a board.

“I really have nothing to say to you,” Cosima replies, attempting to close the door in Rachel’s face, but Delphine stops her.

“Come in, Rachel,” Delphine says, opening the door wide. Cosima looks at her as if she had just been betrayed. Rachel walks in and flattens her skirt, trying to unwrinkle it, but doing so in vain.

“I want to… apologize,” she drawls, as if saying those words physically hurts her. “What I did was reprehensible. I am sorry, to both of you.”

Cosima clenches her jaw and glares daggers into Rachel, but her face softens when she feels Delphine’s hand on her shoulder.

“You have been through a lot, Rachel. We know that Leekie took you when you were a child and that couldn’t have been easy.”

“It was not. It loathed him for a long time and then I realized that could use his adoration and turn that into power, which is what I did. I pretty much run the Underworld and he’s just the figurehead.”

Rachel didn’t often show weakness, or any emotions, really, but talking about her childhood caused things to resurface - things she thought she had long since buried.

It almost made Cosima feel bad for her. Almost.

Still, Cosima couldn’t help but wonder what she would have done had she been in Rachel’s position. She would have felt just as helpless and would have done anything to survive, especially if she had Delphine to live for.

“Okay, if we help you get rid of Leekie and you take full control of the Underworld, we’re going to have to come to some kind of accord, assuming we all live through this war. As long as you don’t mess with live humans or any of us, we won’t bother you. Deal?” Cosima extends her hand.

“Deal,” Rachel replies, shaking it. After that, Rachel and Ferdinand head back downstairs to meet back up with Siobhan, leaving Cosima and Delphine alone.

“I am proud of you, chérie,” Delphine says, kissing Cosima on the forehead and wrapping her up in a tight hug. 

“Why? Because I didn’t murder her?” Cosima pouts.

Delphine laughs. “Yes, and because you were able to come to an agreement that will benefit all of us in the long run.”

Cosima mumbles something about deserving another kiss and Delphine peppers kisses all over her cheeks and lips and forehead. The brunette laughs and hugs Delphine close, never wanting to let go.

“Come on, mon amour, let’s go listen to their plan and see if they need us,” Delphine says, patting Cosima’s shoulder. Cosima begrudgingly lets her go and they walk downstairs. 

Ferdinand and Rachel are sitting at the table with Siobhan and Beth. By the time they arrive, they’re already discussing their plan of attack. Leekie has a contraption he calls the Chair of Forgetfulness that he uses on the dead, or whomever else he feels like, and they need to figure out a way to use it on him instead. It would be difficult, but not impossible. They also need to stop the manufacturing of the godkiller weapon, but Beth says to leave that to her.

“All of this just feels like a distraction,” Cosima says. “There’s a war coming.”

“This is to help with that, chicken,” Siobhan replies. “We can’t let Paul get ahold of those weapons and we can’t let Leekie get in the way, either. The quicker we take care of that, the more of a chance we’ll have against them.”

Cosima sighs. She doesn’t like it, but she’ll go along with the plan for now. She may not be a warrior, but she knows strategy and she’s been alive just as long as the rest of them, and she’ll do anything she can to protect those she loves.

“Fine, just tell me what I need to do,” Cosima says.

“What _we_ need to do,” Delphine interjects, squeezing Cosima’s hand.

“Delphine, no, it’s too dangerous,” Cosima tries to argue, but she’s seen this look in Delphine’s eyes before. She’s set her mind to something and she’s going to follow through.

“I can still help,” Delphine replies, rolling her eyes. “I am not an invalid and I feel stronger than ever, so please stop treating me like one.”

Cosima wraps her arms around Delphine. “I know, I’m sorry. It’s just that I lost you once and I won’t survive if I lose you again.”

Delphine’s eyes soften and hugs her back. “Mon amour, I almost lost you three times. I would much rather be on the battlefield by your side, where we can protect each other.”

Cosima sighs. “You’re right.” She turns to Siobhan. “Okay, let’s go save some souls.”

* * *

Cosima, Delphine, and Tony get into place outside of the Underworld, while Beth, Ferdinand, and Rachel flank the building off to the side. Tony changes into his disguise and stands up.

“That is so trippy,” Cosima says, looking at Tony’s new form. “Hey, would you be able to turn yourself into Delphine?” The real Delphine slaps her shoulder and Cosima recoils. “I’m just kidding!” Tony rolls his eyes and combs his fingers through his shorter hair. He emerges from the brush, walking toward the building. The guards at the front door let him right in. Beth gives Cosima and Delphine a thumbs up and they all take their places.

Inside the club, Leekie steps out of the shadows and sees Tony. “Ah, so you did come crawling back. I knew you would.”

“Well, you have something I need,” Tony replies, dragging his hand across Leekie’s chest.

“Oh?” Leekie’s voice wavers. “And what would that be?”

Tony places both hands on Leekie’s chest and leans in close enough that Leekie can feel his breath. The real Rachel appears behind the older man and wraps a chain around his neck, pulling him back. “My daughter, you bastard,” Tony growls, dropping his Rachel disguise.

“And this club,” Rachel sneers. There’s a commotion in the back room, which is probably Beth and Ferdinand trying to keep the twins at bay. “Go get the chair, Tony. It’s in the VIP lounge.” Tony sheds his Rachel costume and runs to the back room.

“What are you doing, Rachel?” Leekie croaks, scrabbling at the chain that’s still wrapped tight around his neck.

“Getting my autonomy back, and the life you stole from me,” Rachel spits. “Then I’m going to take this club from you, run it how I see fit, and you will walk this earth as a ghost with no purpose.”

Rudy, Mark, and Gracie are all bound with adamantine cuffs and thrown onto the floor in front of them. Ferdinand and Beth come out, dusting their hands off triumphantly. Tony comes out, dragging the chair behind him and sets it in the center of the floor.

Leekie sees what’s happening and has horror in his eyes. “No, please. Rachel, darling, let’s talk about this. You can have the club. It’s yours. I’ll leave! I’ll go back to Olympus! You’ll never see me again.”

Rachel shakes her head. “It’s far too late for that, Aldous. I’m going to make sure you never do this to anyone else ever again.” She pushes him backwards gingerly and he falls into the chair. His body tenses as is if he’s being electrocuted. Cosima and Delphine walk in just as it’s happening and they both have the same look of shock and surprise. They knew what was going to happen, but they still feel guilty.

Rachel watches for a few moments with a satisfied smirk on her face before she turns to leave the club.

“You’re just going to leave?” Cosima calls after her.

“You all have it under control. He’s going to be confused when he wakes up. Tell him whatever you want, but be sure he knows he is not the king of the Underworld.”

They all watch Rachel leave the building and look at all of their captives.

“Well, now what?” Tony asks.

“We stop the weapon manufacturing,” Beth replies.

“And what do we do with them?” Cosima points to the twins and Gracie.

“Well, they have a choice: fight with us, or sit in the chair,” Beth replies simply.

“We-we’ll fight for you! Please don’t make us sit in the chair.” Mark begs.

“Yeah, we’ll tell you where they’re making the weapons. Anything!” Rudy adds. They tell them where the weapons are being made. Delphine and Cosima take the twins and Gracie back to Mrs. S’s house, while Beth and Tony investigate the weapons intel. Sure enough, the twins were telling the truth and the weapons are being built in an old warehouse nearby. They were horribly outmanned, so Tony had the brilliant plan of disguising himself as Paul and infiltrating the factory, while Beth builds and sets charges all over the building, with the help of her owls.

Tony-as-Paul strolls into the building like he owns the place and takes a look around. Mortal workers litter the entire warehouse, working machinery and assembling pieces of the weapons together. Tony scoffs. PT hates mortals, but is willing to use them as a means to an end. Tony wonders if they’re doing this freely, or if they’re under some spell. He walks up to one of the men and instructs him to stop. The man turns to look at him, eyes wide, and he kneels.

“Ares, sir, how can I help you?”

Tony hesitates. “Uh… tell me, what is the plan for all of these weapons?”

“The plan, sir?”

“Yes, tell me again what we’re doing with them after they’re all made.”

The man’s eyes shift from side to side. He thinks this is a trick question and is thinking about his answer very carefully. “Y-you told us that we were to build these weapons and then they would be transported to Olympus, where Zeus is training the mortal ranks.”

“Mortal ranks.”

“Y-yes sir. You’ve been training mortals to fight for you.”

“Right. Of course.”

_Well, shit._

Tony excuses the man and allows him to keep working and he pulls the fire alarm as he leaves, creating havoc. All of the workers evacuate the building and Beth waits for every last person to be far enough away before she detonates the bombs. Tony takes off his disguise and relays the information that the worker told him to Beth.

“Mortal fighters? You’ve got to be kidding me,” Beth sighs. “Well, let’s go tell Mrs. S and the others.”

As they turn to leave, they hear movement behind them and guns pressed to their backs.

“Turn around, slowly.”

They do so with their hands raised and Beth internally groans. “Art.”

“Beth? What are you doing here?”

“What does it look like? Blowing up your weapon factory. You know, using mortals to fight in the war is low, even for PT.”

Art sighs. “I did not agree to it. You know how PT is and Paul is his golden boy, so he does whatever he says.”

“Oh, I’m well aware,” Beth replies. Art lowers his weapon, as do the other people with him.

“I’m tired, Beth. This war is futile and it’s only going to bring destruction.”

“You could join us,” Tony suggests.

Art looks torn between duty and his heart. Though, he was conscripted to fight for PT’s side, he never agreed to use the very people they were going to eradicate in order to reach their goal. Using mortals to not only build their weapons, but also in an army where they’re fighting their own kind with the false promise of survival afterwards is not what he signed up for. He drops his weapon to the floor, as do the other men with him.

“I’m in.” He looks at Beth. “If you’ll have me.”

Beth gives him a crooked smile and places a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go home.”

* * *

Back at Siobhan’s, Cosima and Delphine bring the twins and Gracie back, and they are promptly sent to the basement. It takes Delphine, Cosima, Cal, Shay, Felix, and Alison to hold Helena back as she tries to rip Gracie’s face apart.

“Shay, just put her to sleep!” Felix yells, struggling to hold Helena’s arm.

“No way,” Shay squeaks. “She’ll be after me next if I do that.”

Siobhan sighs at her children and stands in front of Helena. She puts both of her hands on the sides of the hunter’s face and has her look up her. “Chicken, vengeance is not the way.”

“She betrayed us!” Helena growls.

“Yes, and killing her won’t ease any of the pain you feel. It will just create more. Save this energy for the war. You can kill as many harpies and chimera that you want.”

Helena stops trying to break free and sits on the floor, staring at the basement door. “If they betray again, I make them dead.”

“No arguments there, love,” Siobhan agrees. She nods to the others and tells them to keep an eye on the house while she opens the door and descends the stairs. Shortly after, Beth, Tony, and Art arrive.

“Look who the goddess dragged in,” Alison quips.

“Art? What’s he doing here?” Cosima asks.

“We have news,” Beth says. She explains what Art told her about the mortals in the factory and in PT’s army. Everyone present asks a litany of questions, none of which Art can answer, until Cosima shushes them all.

“So, what you’re saying is, PT is using mortals to fight in a war against mortals? I didn’t think he could ever become a bigger asshole, but here we are.”

“Well, we have to save them!” Krystal exclaims. “They probably don’t even know what they’re doing.”

“We will do whatever we can. They are innocent,” Delphine assures her friend. Cosima looks up at her and smiles, squeezing her hand and whispering a _thank you_.

The doorbell rings and Scott opens the door and his eyes widen. Standing in the doorway and all over the front yard are groups of Valkyries, Amazons, and centaurs.

“Well, hey, y’all!” Adele, the leader of the Valkyries exclaims, waving enthusiastically.

“We heard you all could use some help,” Marion, the Queen of the Amazons, says, smirking.


	11. God(s) of War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S DONE. Holy moly. Sorry it took me so long; I kind of needed a cophine break, so I switched it up to supercorp for a bit, but I'm finally finished. Thanks for sticking with this story and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Everyone in the house welcomes all of the visiting Valkyries, Amazons, and centaurs into the house. Most of the ranks remain outside standing guard or training, but the high-ranking officers go inside and compare notes with Beth and Siobhan.

“Okay, so with no more weapons, we do stand a better chance,” Marion says.

“But what about the mortals? The poor dears,” Adele asks with concern in her eyes.

“Delphine and Cosima can take care of them. All Delphine has to do is look at them and they’ll follow her anywhere,” Beth replies with a chuckle.

“Like sexy pied piper,” Helena adds.

Delphine rolls her eyes. “I am capable of doing more than eye-fucking people, you know. I’m not sure if you remember, but I threw Cerberus across a park.”

“That was totally hot, by the way,” Cosima interjects. “It almost made me forget I got stabbed.” Delphine elbows her in the ribs and chuckles. They continue planning their attack and decide to bring the fight to Olympus, as an attempt to reduce the number of civilians around and make sure there isn’t much destruction within the city.

Alison pours wine for everyone while Beth discusses their battle plans, setting up a perimeter around PT’s compound and showing the centaurs, Valkyries and the Pegasus, and Amazons where they’ll be grouped up.

“As mentioned before, Delphine and Cosima will be in charge of getting to the mortals; Cal, Krystal, and Scott will work on the security systems; Helena, Sarah, Art, and I will be on the frontlines; Felix, Shay, and Mrs. S will all be on standby at the house.”

“What about me?” Tony asks.

“You stay in the house and don’t get in the way,” Beth replies with a steely gaze.

Tony frowns. “You all still don’t trust me.”

“Can you blame us?” Felix asks, crossing his arms. There’s an uncomfortable silence that falls over the room and Tony is clearly frustrated by the situation, but he concedes and accepts his position as sitting duck.

While everyone begins preparing, sharpening weapons or shining their armor, Cosima takes Delphine off to the side.

“We stick together, right?”

“Oui, I won’t leave your side,” Delphine agrees.

Cosima nods. “Okay, good.” She still has a worried look on her face, teeth tugging at her lip.

“What’s wrong, chérie?”

Cosima crosses her arms over herself. “What if we can’t save all of them?”

Delphine puts her hands on Cosima’s shoulders. “There are bound to be causalities. This is war, Cosima. We’ll do our best to save as many as we can, and that’s all we can really do.”

Cosima nods solemnly. “You’re right. Plus, they stand a way better chance with the two of us, don’t they? Imagine Helena trying to run around and _not_ shoot people who are shooting at her.”

Delphine laughs and pulls Cosima close to her. “Je t’aime.”

“I love you, too,” Cosima replies, pulling Delphine down to her, kissing her gently.

“Oi, stop snogging. We have a war to prepare for,” Sarah shouts as she walks by.

Delphine and Cosima smile at each other sheepishly and get back to work.

“The Valkyries will keep a unit here at the house and keep watch,” Marion says to Siobhan. “I can spare a few Amazons, too, if you’d like.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary. You’ll need all the help you can get in Olympus,” Siobhan replies. Marion nods and takes her leave. Everyone finishes preparing, completes their training, and gets a good night’s sleep. At dawn, they move in on Olympus.

* * *

“What do you _mean_ Rachel and Art are missing?” PT seethes. He picks up a metal pitcher on his table and throws it at the guard bringing him this most disappointing news. “Sound the alarm. We attack now.”

Susan watches her husband stomp around his throne room and slips out quietly. She almost makes it to the gate, but hears footsteps behind her.

“Mother? Where are you going?” Paul asks her, stepping out of the shadows.

“Your father asked me to go make sure the path to Hestia’s house is clear. Now that we know where it is, we can find out where to place our troops.”

“But I’ve already done that.”

“He asked me to do it again,” Susan replies, forcing a smile.

“I can’t let you leave,” Paul says, and two guards appear in front of Susan.

“Oh Paul, my son,” Susan says, placing a gentle palm on his cheek. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Paul laughs in amusement. “Hurt me? Hurt _me_? I am the god of war! You can’t possibly think you can harm me.”

Susan sighs. “How did I raise such an insolent boy? You take after your father. Did you forget that I am the Queen of Olympus? Queen of the heavens?” Dark clouds start to roll in overhead and thunder cracks through the sky. The guards look up and flee the scene, leaving Paul alone to face his mother. “Stand down, Paul,” she warns.

“You know I never back down from a fight, mother,” he replies, getting into his battle stance. He races forward, lifting his sword into the air when a flash of lightning stabs through the sky and cuts through the ground in front of him. He’s temporarily blinded and when his vision adjusts, Susan is nowhere to be found. He growls in frustration and runs off to find back-up.

Susan makes her way to Siobhan’s house and when she gets there, she’s stopped by some patrol units. “I’m here to warn them,” she pants, completely out of breath.

“Go get Marion,” one of the Valkyries orders another. When Marion arrives, she walks up and scoffs.

“Susan, nice to see you.”

“And you as well, Marion. Please, I need to speak with Beth and Siobhan. PT is planning his attack now. They’re on their way.”

Marion growls and tells the Valkyries to bring Susan inside.

“Thank you for coming to warn us, Susan,” Siobhan says as she snaps her fingers and Tony appears next to her. “Tony, gather everyone and tell them to line up outside. We’re marching to Olympus _now_.” Tony nods and takes his leave. Soon after, the centaurs, Valkyries, and Amazons all group up in front of the house and await their instructions. The gods start filtering out of the house, as well. Cosima and Delphine come out last. Everyone is wearing their battle gear, armored and weaponed up. Siobhan and Susan walk out to the center of the troops and begin their inspirational speech.

“None of you signed up for this,” Siobhan begins. “But you’re here anyway to save the future of mortality. They may have the numbers, but we have something better:—“

“Donuts?” Helena says with a blueberry old fashioned sticking halfway out of her mouth.

“The better god of war,” Beth says confidently. Siobhan gives her a look. “Okay, fine, and also our compassion, or whatever.”

“We have each other. We still have our humanity, even though we are gods. We have lived among them, protected them, some even became them and it is our duty to ensure that they continue to thrive. It was the whole reason why we left Olympus in the first place,” Siobhan’s voice booms across the yard as she paces back and forth in front of her army. Everyone looks ready to fight, the speech seems to have rallied them.

“We‘re ready. This is the moment we’ve been training for,” Beth continues. “Let’s go show PT and his ilk that we will not be bullied. We will not be forced to do his bidding any longer. This is our home, so let’s fight for it.”

Cheers ring out from the troops, arms raised and weapons thumping against shields and the ground. Dark clouds begin to roll in and a fog descends to the ground - Susan’s doing, most likely. The cover will help them to not be detected so easily.

As they all start to move out, Cosima takes Delphine’s hand and squeezes it tightly. Delphine looks at her and nods. They’re ready for this. The units stop their forward movement suddenly and they await their instructions. They hear Beth’s voice booming across the field; she’s inspiring them again and they spot some of PT’s units just below the ridge ahead.

“You ready?” Cosima asks, squeezing Delphine’s hand.

“Always, chérie,” she replies.

They race ahead, along with the others, and they see PT’s troops start to jog forward. The Valkyries fly above them and throw spears from the air, interrupting their forward flow of movement. Giants on PT’s side throw massive boulders and they come crashing down onto the units. Beth barely escapes being hit as she hitches a ride on a Pegasus and sits behind Adele while she shoots at harpies that are zigzagging around them. When they’re just above one of the giants, she jumps off onto its shoulder and takes out her short sword, digging it into its thick skin. The giant yells out in pain, trying to grab at Beth, but she’s too quick and is able to continue stabbing it until she gets a good shot at its head and digs the sword right into its skull. The giant’s arms fall to its sides and it begins to topple over and Beth has to jump off before she’s crushed underneath.

Yards away, Helena is riding on the back of a motorcycle driven by Art, running next to centaurs and shooting at enemies. Nearby, Marion leads the Amazons forward to attack Cerberus. Delphine and Cosima run behind them, slicing at anything in their way. Cosima runs forward and places her shield on her back.

“Delphine, here!”

Delphine pushes forward and jumps onto Cosima’s shield while she gets hoisted up and hops onto Cerberus’ back.

“Impressive,” Adele says with a wink.

“Saw it in a movie once,” Cosima replies with a wink.

Delphine stands high above ground, on the back of the beast and tries to figure out how to bring it down, while the Amazons below run around and try to cut at its legs. Cerberus growls and swipes his paw at them, throwing a few across the field. The Valkyries throw bolos attached to long ropes and fly low around Cerberus’ legs and wrap the ropes around tight until he trips on his own feet and falls to the floor. While he’s temporarily impaired, the troops move onto the rest of the battle.

Beth spots Paul across the field and hones in on him, making a beeline right for her brother. She throws her spear right at his chest, but he senses it and dodges it at the last minute. Beth pulls her sword from her scabbard and swings down on him and he parries with his own sword.

“You come to bend the knee, sister?” Paul sneers.

“Not on your fucking life,” Beth spits back and swings at him again. Paul blocks again and tries to spin around and catch Beth at a different angle, but she’s too quick.

“No? How about on his?” Paul turns suddenly, grabbing a spear that’s stuck in the ground and throws it directly at Art. It hits him and he screams before falling off of the motorcycle and sending it careening off to the side. Helena jumps off at the last second.

“Art!” Beth yells out to him. He falls onto his side and she lets out an animalistic growl before swinging carelessly at Paul, causing him to stumble backwards until he trips on a boulder. Beth kicks his sword out of his hand and points the tip of hers at his throat.

“You finally bested me,” Paul says, taking deep breaths. “Good form. Now, end it.” He lifts his chin to give Beth better access to his throat. She looks around at the mayhem and watches people fall on both sides. She sees the death and the destruction. Paul notices her hesitation and he pulls the blade closer to his neck until it pierces skin. “Do it! You’re the god of war!”

Beth throws her sword to the ground and shakes her head. “No. No more.” She turns to walk away and Paul stands up slowly, grabbing the discarded sword. He lifts it and rushes at Beth, but is stopped in his tracks when he feels a spear pierce through his chest. Beth turns and sees Art slumped on the ground with a look of resignation and satisfaction on his face. He’s then picked up by a Valkyrie and carted back to the house to get treatment from Shay.

Delphine and Cosima move through the throngs of fighters until they see a group of scared humans. They’re clutching their weapons and being cut down one-by-one by stray arrows, or by their own troops. Chimera and harpies don’t care who they’re killing as long as bodies lay at their feet. Cosima walks up to the mortals and puts away her weapon.

“If you all want to get out of this alive, follow me.”

“But Zeus will kill us all if we desert,” one of them says.

“Well, you either die at the hands of an Amazon or Zeus, or you at least have a chance to live if you come with us.”

The crowd of people all look at one another and nod at Cosima. She and Delphine lead them away from the scuffle through the field. PT notices this and bellows that they’ll never get away. He claps his hands together and dark clouds begin to roll in. Thunder rumbles across the battlefield and shakes the earth to its core. Bolts of lightning shoot through the sky and PT raises his arms above his head. He reigns in the power of the elements and virtually grabs lightning out of the clouds and sends them straight for the mortals. Delphine does her best to block what she can, but there are too many and some people fall behind her.

Susan steps forward and shrouds them all in a fog, yelling at Delphine and Cosima to get them back to the house. A yell rips through the air as PT pounces on Susan, knocking her to the ground. He holds a lightning bolt over his head.

“Hera, my wife, you have forsaken me, as well?” He has a pained look on his face, a look of betrayal.

“This war is lost, Zeus. Look around, you’ve been beaten.”

PT examines his surroundings and watches harpies fall from the sky and chimera being slashed down by Amazons and other gods. “Perhaps, but at least take those who have betrayed me to the Underworld. As he’s about to stab Susan, there’s a squelching sound and PT looks down at his torso and sees a blade sticking through him. He slowly turns his head and sees Rachel standing behind him with a satisfied smirk on her face.

“Hello, Father. Miss me?”

PT collapses off to the side and Susan pushes his lifeless body off of her legs, standing up. “Rachel, we thought you were gone.”

“I was. Ferdinand and I were well on our way, but I couldn’t give Father the satisfaction that I was the coward he always thought I was.”

Beth flies over and raises her weapon at Rachel. Susan stands in her way. “Beth, stop, she is the one who killed PT. The war is over.” Beth opens her mouth and shuts it before turning to the battle in front of them.

“PT is dead! The god Zeus is dead! Lay down your arms.” Everyone freezes and stops fighting, looking at one another. Some of PT’s troops retreat back to Olympus and others remain. Aldous appears with the twins and start to take souls of the departed. He takes PT’s last and personally escorts him back to the Underworld.

As everyone starts heading back toward the house, bringing back their injured and leaving the deceased for Aldous, Cosima has a grim look on her face and Delphine notices.

“What’s wrong?” she asks.

Cosima sighs and looks behind her at the virtual cemetery. “We didn’t save all of them.”

Delphine takes Cosima’s hand and kisses the back of it. “No, but we saved many of them, probably hundreds of humans.”

They continue walking together until Cosima snorts. “Can you believe Rachel fucking Duncan killed PT? She’s the one who ended the war.”

“That is hard to believe,” Delphine says with a smile. “Cosima,” she stops walking and holds Cosima’s hands in hers. “What do you want?”

Cosima looks at her quizzically. “What do you mean?”

“What do you want to do with your life? Do you want to continue living as gods? Do you want to become mortal again and live our lives together until we grow old?”

“I don’t really care as long as I’m with you,” she replies with a smile. “Why are you asking me this now? We should be celebrating.”

Delphine shrugs. “I guess I just want to know what’s going to happen after all of this.”

Cosima takes a step forward and puts her hands on Delphine’s hips. “What’s going to happen is that we’re going to have hot celebratory sex and not think about anything for the next few days.” She smiles and stands on her toes before kissing Delphine. The blonde relents and threads her fingers through Cosima’s hair, returning the kiss. This conversation can wait.

* * *

For the next few weeks, meetings are held to figure out what to do about Olympus and its inhabitants and what Siobhan and the rest of her family will end up doing. Beth is given the throne after Siobhan declined, stating she was too old and too jaded to rule. Beth would be a much better option as she led the battle and would be able to keep the peace better than anyone else. Helena is made her chief of security and Art is her most trusted advisor. The rest of the gods are given their own jobs, even Tony, who is put in charge of message deliveries and continues guiding people to the Underworld.

Krystal and Shay work in the hospitals and infirmaries, while Sarah and Cal decide to travel for a while; Sarah promises that she’ll return this time. Felix and Alison continue teaching at the university, saying that they love molding young minds, when, in actuality, they really just love making art and wine and what better way to receive praise for what they make than having college students tell them how great they are?

One day, when Cosima and Delphine are walking down the street after lunch, Cosima takes the blonde’s hand in her own.

“Do you remember when you asked me what I wanted to do with my life?”

Delphine nods. “Yes, of course.”

“I’ve thought about it and I decided that I just want to spend it with you. If we’re still gods or mortal, it doesn’t matter. I want to live the rest of my life with you, however long that may be. We’ve wasted so many years apart and now that I have you back, I never want to leave your side again.” She pulls out a small velvet-covered box out of her coat pocket and Delphine stops breathing. “I know this is an archaic tradition, but being mortal for so long kind of made me long for a white wedding and the whole nine yards.” She smiles as tears pool at the corners of her eyes. “Delphine, will you marry me?”

Delphine is speechless for a few seconds, her own tears falling freely down her face. “It would be a little awkward if the goddess of love said no to her own proposal,” she jokes. “Of course I’ll marry you.”

Everyone is invited to the wedding, even Rachel and Ferdinand, but they’re off hiding out in some yurt somewhere and don’t attend. Susan officiates and there isn’t a dry eye in the crowd when she tells them that they can kiss their bride. Delphine leans in to kiss Cosima, sealing their promise to love and cherish one another until the day they die, which means she’ll love Cosima for the rest of eternity, and she wouldn’t want to live any other way.


End file.
